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Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives 

























JUD^A CAPTA 


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BAKER & SCRIBNER 


BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL, 145 NASSAU-ST, 













































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JUD^A CAPTA. 


CHAPTER I. 

Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be 
built, O virgin of Israel!” saith the Lord. Ever¬ 
more bearing in mind this promise, regarding it as 
a beacon of hope, yea, of positive certainty, bright¬ 
ening the dark path that we are,about to traverse, 
we may the better bear to fix a sleadfast gaze on 
the desolations of many generations,—to recall, in 
what has been, the painful prelude to what now 
is ; and to relate how, with the stroke of a cruel 
one the holy city was smitten, her spiritual privi¬ 
leges extinguished, and her temporal glories buried 
in the dust. 

“ Beautiful for situation,” that which constitut¬ 
ed its principal beauty was also its main strength. 
Judea is peculiarly a “ hill country and in the 
neighborhood of the holy city these mountainous 
elevations are rendered so conducive to its defence 
as to have furnished King David with an illustra¬ 
tion of the divine guardianship; “ As the moun¬ 
tains are round about Jerusalfem, so the Lord is 
round about his people.” What the size and as¬ 
pect of the city may have been in the days of its 
highest splendor, when Solomon swayed the sceptre 



4 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


of Israel, not then disunited from Judah, or even 
what it may have been when Zerubbabel had 
reared the second temple, and Nehemiah rebuilt 
the walls, it is not our present intention to inquire. 
We come before the city of the great king in darker 
days, intent on describing it as seen by the belea¬ 
guering hosts of Rome, advancing to fix the abomi¬ 
nation of desolation spoken of by Daniel the pro¬ 
phet, in the holy place. 

At this time, the position of Jerusalem, as regards 
its natural strength and compact beauty, was, and 
yet was not, what travellers now behold it. The 
everlasting hills do indeed maintain their ancient 
places, but the deep ravines, naturally almost im¬ 
passable by a hostile force, are now choked up by 
the accumulated ruin and neglect of many centu¬ 
ries, divesting the site of its otherwise isolated 
appearance, particularly since Zion has been 
ploughed like a field; and the city of David pre¬ 
sents, on its magnificent external acclivity, little 
else than a waste of desolate ground. Our ideas 
concerning the place are in general extremely con¬ 
fused and erroneous : many will speak and write 
of Zion and Moriah, the city of David and the 
Temple, as though they had formed an undistin¬ 
guished mass, and were convertible terms. So far 
is this from being correct, in reference to the Jeru¬ 
salem of the Bible, that we require to obtain a 
clear, and in many instances a wholly novel, view 
of its geographical position, before we can compre¬ 
hend even the proceedings of the Roman invader. 

We will first speak of its boundaries, as they ex¬ 
isted eighteen hundred years ago. Northward of 
the city rose an undulating ground, termed Scopus, 


JERUSALEM AS IT WAS, 


5 


which stretched away also to the westward, ren¬ 
dering the approach in that direction comparatively 
easy; it was, indeed, the only accessible point, 
and all the enemies who have attacked Jerusalem 
made it their highway. Towards the south-west 
the ground began to deepen into a valley, whence 
rose in lofty grandeur the noble hill of Zion. This 
was called the valley of Gihon, and soon spread 
into another valley, that ot Hinnom, running due 
west and east, between the southern foot of ZiOn 
and an elevation termed the hill of Evil-counsel, 
from a tradition that there had Solomon been mis¬ 
led by his idolatrous wives into the sin that polluted 
the latter part of his reign. The valley of Hinnom 
was met, at the south-eastern extremity of the city, 
by another and a far more striking pass, the valley 
of the Kidron, or Jehosophat; this running along 
the whole eastern course of the city, yielded a bed 
to the brook Kidron, and separated Mount Moriah 
from the Mount of Olives. The side of the former 
was exceedingly steep, precipitous, and altogether 
an unapproachable defence. No adequate concep¬ 
tion can be formed, from its present appearance, of 
what it was before the fall of those immense ruins 
that have converted its descent into a slope, and 
raised its original level; but it is plain that its 
whole aspect has been so changed. The Mount 
of Olives, however, remains unaltered, a sublime 
and enduring relic, of interest so thrilling that its 
very name awakens emotions not less deep in the 
bosom of the Gentile Christian than in that of the 
Jew. Tills beautiful mountain rises like a broad 
shield over against where the Temple of the Lord 
once stood; and the traveller who takes up his 
1 * 


6 


JUDJi:A CAPTA. 


post on its swelling side beholds the holy city 
spread out, in all its length and breadth, at his feet. 

Of that city itself, Ave have now to speak, and 
of its remarkable divisions. Supposing ourselves 
placed on the Mount of Olives at the period refer¬ 
red to, its aspect would have been that of three 
very distinct hills, separated one from the other by 
narrow but deep ravines ; while, towards the north, 
that is, to the right of the spectator, in front, ex¬ 
tended a fourth division, reaching far over the com¬ 
paratively level country in that direction. First of 
the holy hills, right opposite the Mount of Olives, 
and rising so as to terminate in a broad, square 
platform, was Moriah, on whose summit stood the 
magnificent Temple, within its threefold courts. 
To the south, the hill descended till it reached the 
spot where the valleys of Hinnom and of the Kidron 
meet, the eastern side of this hill, which here was 
called Ophel, running along the whole ridge of the 
latter, the western terminating in a deep, abrupt 
declivity, called the valley of the Tyropean. The 
sides of the Moriah, precipitous on the east, were 
also steep on the west and on the south; and at 
the angle of these two points a lofty bridge was re¬ 
quisite to span the Tyropean, and so to form a 
communication between the Temple and the upper 
city on Mount Zion. 

This hill, rising from the valley of Hinnom on 
the south, and bounded on the east and north by 
the Tyropean (which thus wound its way through 
the heart of Jerusalem), was at once the highest, 
the strongest, and the most important of the inhab¬ 
ited places round Moriah; its outlines were so 
perfectly defined, that it might well be called a city 


THE SACRED HILLS. 


7 


in itself, apart from and independent of all the rest. 
The third hill, Acra, was the site of the ancient 
Salem, which David took from the Jebusites, lying 
due west of the Temple, and north of Zion; its 
irregular sides sloping towards the Tyropean, and 
ascending the Mount Moriah, while its northern 
and western boundaries were formed by Bezetha, 
the most recent addition to the metropolis. 

Zion is frequently used to designate the whole 
city, as being the principal, the most conspicuous 
part. While the site of the Temple was but a 
threshing-floor, Zion was covered with magnificent 
buildings, and at all subsequent periods it was the 
residence of the princes and chief men. Here 
David fixed his kingly seat, and here, during his 
reign, and for some years after Solomon’s accession, 
the Ark of the Lord remained within a tabernacle 
which David had prepared for it. That Zion, where 
corn now waves, and a few flocks find pasturage 
among its beautiful but desolate slopes, presented to 
the eye one vast pile of architectural grandeur and 
military strength. At the time whereof we write, 
such was its character, while that of Acra, venera¬ 
ble as it was, and famous as having been the seat 
of Melchizedek’s kingdom, had become principally 
mercantile ; its numerous intricate and narrow 
streets being densely inhabited by tradesmen, arti- 
zans, and all those who ministered to the luxurious 
dwellers in the palaces of Zion. Bezetha, as it has 
been observed, was a modern addition to the city, 
having been walled in by Agrippa, but by no 
means in so perfect a manner as he had planned to 
do it. Here the population was less crowded, and 
in every sens() it formed the weakest part of Jeru- 


8 


JUD-EA CAPTA. 


Salem. Moriah was altogether occupied by the 
Temple, with its extensive courts and enclosures, 
excepting Ophel, that slip of it which we have no¬ 
ticed as running southward, parallel with Zion, but 
separated from it by the very abrupt ravine of the 
Tyropean, the remarkable pass which completely 
isolated the stately hill of Zion, but of which, in its 
original character as a deep, winding valley in the 
midst of a populous city, we can form but a very im¬ 
perfect conception now. In fact, in all its lower por¬ 
tions, the modern Jerusalem is built upon the mass 
of what was rolled down from its heights in the days 
of oft-renewed destruction; and the Tyropean es¬ 
pecially became the natural receptacle of these fall¬ 
ing fragments. Ophel was principally assigned to 
the numerous inferior officers and servants of the 
Temple, who had their dwellings thus within a con¬ 
venient distance of the Holy House, and were not 
separated from it by any intervening barrier. 

Thus, though imperfectly, we have endeavored 
to sketch with some accuracy the scene of events 
now to be narrated. It is impossible, however, to 
quit this branch of the subject without remarking to 
what an extent the privilege granted to believers of 
making a spiritual application, suited to individual 
cases, or to that of the church, of what has been 
aforetime written in reference to Israel, has occa¬ 
sionally been perverted, even to a total oblivion of 
the literal significancy of the words, and to the ex¬ 
clusion of those to whom they were primarily ad¬ 
dressed. 

Let us for a moment pause on this. The second 
chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy is one much prized by ' 
the Christian believer. It commences with glorious 


I 


/ 


MISINTERPRETATIONS. 9 

promises of a state of future blessedness on earth. 

And it shall come to pass, in the last days, that the 
mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established 
in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted 
above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto 
it.” This is frequently taken to indicate a state of 
extraordinary fullness and prosperity enjoyed by the 
Christian church at large, unconfined to any locality, 
but spreading abroad over the whole earth. By 
“ the mountain of the Lord’s house,” the great 
bulk of our commentators understand that kingdom 
described by Daniel, which becomes a great moun¬ 
tain, and fills the whole earth,” certainly typifying 
the universal dominion of him who shall be Kins: 
over all the earth ; but to this particular passage in 
Isaiah a locality is assigned : the prophet describes 
it as “ The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw 
concerning Judah and Jerusalem J To this some 
answer, that in prophetic language Judah means the 
believing people of Christ, and Jerusalem the whole 
church, as a church ; an organized body of men, 
having its offices, its ministers, and so forth. But 
let us turn to the prophecy of Micah (third chapter, 
last five verses). There, the peculiar transgressions 
of Israel, for which a visitation was pending, are 
described, ending with these remarkable words : 

Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as 
a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the 
Mountain of the House as the high places of the 
forest.” 

Zion, the city of David, is now in great measure, 
as we have seen, a ploughed surface, on which corn 
is grown, and a few flocks find pasturage. Jerusa¬ 
lem, the ancient city of the Jebusites, that Salem 


10 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


of which Melchizedek was king, now called Acra, 
once the most densely populated of the whole area, 
has been made heaps of ruined buildings, insomuch 
that the existing town at this day stands on the 
confused “ heaps ” of what formerly was. The 
rubbish has in some places well nigh filled up and 
levelled what has been a deep valley; and a builder 
seekins: a solid foundation must work through com- 
plete strata of these accumulations to a depth of 
many feet before he can reach it. The Mountain 
OF THE House*, Moriah, where the Temple of the 
Lord stood, is become as the high places of the 
forest. Baal, and the other idols that proved so 
often a snare to Israel, had their altars always on 
high places, surrounded by groves of trees, which 
God-fearing kings from time to time cast down, 
plucked up, and removed away; for they W'ere 
accursed things, abominations, unlawful to Israel, 
hateful unto God, who forbade the approach of his 
people to their unhallowed confines. 

What now is the state of Mount Moriah } It is 
crowned by a mosque, which, being the temple of 
a most false religion, is as a high place of the forest 
to the Jew, who is not only forbidden by his law 
to set foot within the boundary, but is likewise 
compulsorily excluded by the Moslem usurper and 
defiier of that holy site. It is not a high place of 
the forest, for no idol is there, no altar, no grove,— 
it is CIS a high place of the forest, for it is an 
abomination making desolate, and that which no 
Israelite can approach. So far no one can question 
the remarkably literal fulfilment of a most literal 
prediction ; and then—no break intervening in the 
original Hebrew—the Word proceeds: “But in 


THE MOUNTAIN OF THE HOUSE. 11 

the last (lays it shall come to pass that the Moun¬ 
tain OF THE House of the Lord shall be establish¬ 
ed in the top of the mountains, and it shall be 
exalted above the hills, and the people shall flow 
unto it. And many nations shall come, and say. 
Come, and let us go up to the house of the God of 
Jacob ; and he will teach us of his ways, and we 
will walk in his paths : for the law shall go forth 
of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusa¬ 
lem.” Here we have, in the plainest exhibition 
that language can aflbrd, the three mountains,— 
Zion, ploughed as a field, Acra, reduced to heaps, 
and Moriah, polluted by a false religion, rebuilt, 
restored, re-sanctified, and become once more the 
resort of voluntary worshippers from every quarter 
of the globe. “ Thus saith the Lord, I am return¬ 
ed unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jeru¬ 
salem ; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of 
truth, and the Mountain of the Lord of Hosts, 
the holy mountain. . . . Thus saith the Loril 

of Hosts: If it be marvellous in the eyes of the 
remnant of this people in these days, should it also 
be marvellous in mine eyes ? saith the Lord of 
Hosts. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts : Behold I 
will save many people from the east country, and 
from the west country, and I will bring them, and 
they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and 
they shall be my people, and I will be their God, 
in truth and in righteousness.”* 

Let it not, then, be imagined that with the feel¬ 
ings of a mere antiquary we call to mind, or would 
bring to the view of our readers, exact localitieS| 


* Zech. viii. 3, 6, 7, 8. 


12 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


their names, and peculiar features. All these things 
not only have been, but shall be ; Zion, Acra, Mo¬ 
riah, shall yet stand forth upon the 'world’s map, 
not only in their indelible outline, but in all the rich 
beauty of such finishing, and such tinting as the 
hand of God can alone restore to them. Zion, Je- 
rusalerri, and the Mountain of the Lord’s house, 
shall be familiar to the ears and lips of all men as 
no'w the}" are to the thought of the careful student 
of Scripture. 

We have now to notice the walls of the ancient 
city, in connection with the imperfect sketch of its 
natural divisions. Of these we shall have occasion 
hereafter to speak more particularly ; and need 
merely in this place observe that they not only 
perfectly surrounded the whole city, embracing 
Moriah, Acra, and Bezetha, in one compact line of 
bulwarks, but also afforded a separate defence to 
each : for, after the first and most ancient of them 
had completely encircled Zion, sending out an ad¬ 
ditional line to encompass Ophel, and join the mas¬ 
sive walls of the Temple ; a second, thrown out in 
a semi-circular form, defended Acra, its extreme 
points resting on the first; and a third wall, added 
by Agrippa, took in the ^ suburban district of Beze¬ 
tha, from the northern angle of the Temple to the 
majestic tower of Hippicus, which stood where the 
ancient citadel of David had guarded his Zion at the 
north-western extremity of its sweep. Of these 
walls the strength was prodigious. Built of huge 
stones, the fragments of which cause the men of 
our times to stand amazed ; studded with mighty 
towers, each in itself a fortress, and manned by the 
lion tribe of Judah, well may we enter into the 


SUCH WAS JERUSALEM. 


13 


feeling that laughed to scorn the besiegers’ menace, 
and proudly reiterated the song for the sons of 
Korah: 

“ Walkabout Zion, and go round about ber,— 

Tell ye the towers thereof; 

Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, 
That ye may tell it to the generation following.” 


CHAPTER II. 


There is no lack of historical notices of what 
befel the holy land and its people in the day of their 
terrible visitation ; Josephus is within the reach of 
most readers, while Milman and others have fur¬ 
nished an abstract of what he recorded. Two 
things, however, are noticeable ;—The Jewish his¬ 
torian evidently wrote not only under Roman pa¬ 
tronage, but with a keen eye to his own interest, 
in producing what should best please his alien mas¬ 
ters ; and though a gleam of nationality may here 
and there struggle through the dense cloud of 
worldly feelings, principles and pursuits, it is pre 
sently extinguished by the prudential or the egotis¬ 
tical principle, and we are compelled to feel that he 
painted his picture under the lion’s paw—obliged to 
exaggerate the merits of brute force and to lower 
as much as he could whatsoever related to the 
other combatant. The historical accuracy of his 
general details we may admit, the more readily be¬ 
cause what they set forth had already been traced 
in the prophetic Word ; but we find in him little 
of the sympathy that might be looked for in treat¬ 
ing such a subject. That he was a Christian we 
cannot for a moment believe ; neither his language 
nor the themes he most delights to dwell on accord 
with the religion that breathes peace on earth, and 
good will towards men. How far towards heath- 


CHARACTER OF JOSEPHUS. 


15 


enism he may have carried his compliances to pro¬ 
pitiate his patron Caesars, we cannot tell. Moses 
seems to have retained small part in him ; and of 
that spirit which shone so gloriously in Moses, that 
ardent devotedness to the cause of his people which 
renders his character so exquisitely lovely and 
loveable, Josephus possessed not an atom. 

On the other hand, our Christian historians have 
written under two impressions, alike unfavorable and 
erroneous. The one was, that Jerusalem had been 
visited with final destruction, her wrecks being left 
merely as monuments of divine vengeance, not as 
providing also materials to re-construct, in surpass¬ 
ing splendor, what was once cast down. The 
other delusion which, whether consciously or not, 
rested, and still, to a great extent, rests, on the minds 
of such historiographers, is that the Jews, as a na¬ 
tion, are cast off, at least so far as to render any 
future restoration contino;ent on their embracins: the 
faith of the gospel, one indispensable concomitant 
of which is held to be their abandoning all distinc¬ 
tive marks, and becoming, in fact, less individual¬ 
ized as a people than are the members of any na¬ 
tional church, or any congregation of consistent dis¬ 
senters. These prejudices interpose a formidable 
barrier between the historian and his subject, oc¬ 
casioning him not only to confuse objects, but so 
to distribute his lights and shades as to blend the 
whole picture into one mass of needless perplexi¬ 
ties. He' dare not quote scripture in continuous 
portions to any extent: it is so formidably literal 
on these points as to scatter to the winds what men 
have laboriously essayed to build upon it; and how¬ 
ever excellent, however conscientious, however 


16 


• JUD^A CAPTA 


able a writer may be, we very rarely indeed fall in 
with one of any note who has had courage to take 
his pen under a deep practical conviction, that in 
approaching these subjects he must fully act up to 
the bold declaration of the apostle : Yea, let God 
be true, and every man a liar.” Human authority 
is, in every sense of the word, an imposing thing : 
one man in former times has darkly trodden a doubt¬ 
ful path, while as yet the heaviest gloom of obscu¬ 
rity rested upon it. Others follow in single file, 
blessed by a much clearer light indeed, but for the 
most part apparently solicitous to use it, each for 
the purpose of accurately planting his foot in the 
print of his predecessor’s shoe. The beaten path 
is good, so far as scripture sanctions it; but when 
a discrepancy appears, it is safer to follow the guid¬ 
ance of revelation, leaving ev^ery other track until 
the same guidance brings us into it again. 

Nothing'has happened, either to the holy city or 
to the people who so long possessed it, as a gift 
from the Lord, but what was plainly foretold in the 
Bible. With astonishing minuteness all that has 
occurred, all that will yet take place, has been set 
forth by holy men of old, speaking as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost. The blessings with 
which the Lord would crown a course of obedience 
were described in glowing language ; and with ter¬ 
rible fidelity were the curses that should ensue 
upon a rebellious departure from the holy law enu¬ 
merated. Not only as a menace, but as a predic¬ 
tion, were those visitations described ; for to Him 
who seeth the end from the beginning, all was 
naked and manifest that should come to pass. In 
reading the awful denunciations contained in the 


ACCURATE PREDICTIONS. 


17 


twenty-eighth cliapter of Deuteronomy, from the 
fifteenth verse to the end, we are constrained to 
feel that it never was or could be a contingency 
hypothetically set forth : it is a terrible reality pre¬ 
sent to the mind of inspiration, not as what perhaps 
might, but as what assuredly would come to pass ; 
increasing in the weight of its inflictions proportion- 
ably with the foreseen aggravation of Israel’s pro¬ 
gressive sins. A blessing would first be enjoyed, 
while the people walked with God, submitting to 
his divine ordinances and continuing in the way of 
his commandments. Then would come a declen¬ 
sion, a determined falling away, that must gradual¬ 
ly lead them into a settled habit of walking contra¬ 
ry to God, until the whole world should resound 
with the exceeding terribleness of his vengeance 
upon the holy people: their punishment being ex¬ 
actly proportioned to the privileges enjoyed and 
abused by them, as says the Lord by Amos, “ You 
only have I known of all the families of the earth: 
therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” 

After this, we find in the thirtieth chapter a pro¬ 
phetic description of their final repentance and re¬ 
turn to God, followed again by the multiplication 
of blessings so rich, so varied, so far beyond the 
stretch of man’s narrow mind to embrace in their 
fullness, that some who never think of explaining 
away the preceding threats, are tempted to dishonor 
God by calling in question the literal applicability 
of those rich promises to the race concerning whom 
they were spoken, and to surmise that they treat 
figuratively of things altogether apart from earth ; 
saying, as did Ezekiel’s unbelieving hearers, ‘‘Doth 
he not speak parables 
2 * 


18 


JUDJ2A CAPTA. 


Of events that occurred in preceding years we do 
not intend to say much : our starting point is the 
final invasion of Judeea by the Roman army under 
Vespasian and his son Titus. The immediate cause 
of their expedition was the slaughter of their troops 
that garrisoned Jerusalem: an act into which the 
Jews were goaded by the really unprovoked wrongs 
and cruelties inflicted on them by the savage Ro¬ 
man procurator, Gessius Florus. This man, whose 
character stands out in bold relief on the page of 
history, as a dire specimen of what Satan can effect 
in assimilating the human mind to his own diaboli¬ 
cal model, had pursued an undeviating course of 
treachery, cruelty and murder, against the people 
committed to his charge. For a long time they 
acted on a system as peaceably defensive as could 
be devised ; and, to the number of three millions, 
humbly petitioned the president of Syria to protect 
them from his cruelties, but in vain. The first out¬ 
break occurred in Cjesarea, the government of which 
was suddenly transferred to alien inhabitants, who 
were raised above the Jews ; and the latter soon 
found their way of access to the synagogue wan¬ 
tonly and maliciously obstructed by the building of 
a Greek idolater, against whom they respectfully 
appealed to Florus, and tendered a handsome gift 
which was accepted as the price of his official in¬ 
terference. When he, apparently by design, left 
the place without taking any means to stay the in¬ 
terruption, and the Greeks, emboldened by his evi¬ 
dent connivance, at once profaned the Sabbath and 
polluted the synagogue, by killing birds at the door, 
in sacrifice to their demons: the Jews, after a 
skirmish with the multitude who strove to force 


CRUELTIES OF GESSIUS FLORUS. 


19 


them into submission to this abominatidn, removed 
their holy books from the place, and renewed their 
appeal to the Roman tyrant. He, instead of re¬ 
dressing the wrong, cast the petitioners into prison; 
and, in the hope of exciting a rebellious movement 
among their brethren in Jerusalem, sent a demand 
for money from the treasury of the Temple, for the 
service, as he said, of the emperor Nero. This 
produced the exasperation on which he had calcu¬ 
lated ; in a tumultuous meeting of the Jews, some 
well-merited epithets were bestowed on Florus, 
who, immediately, upon hearing it, marched upon 
Jerusalem, and returned the loyal and respectful 
greeting of its inhabitants, whose temporary irrita¬ 
tion had passed away, by giving over a consider¬ 
able part of the city to be sacked by the Roman sol¬ 
diers. Notwithstanding this barbarous outrage, 
the inhabitants still declared themselves ready to 
submit to his authority, as the emperor’s represen¬ 
tative ; but the infuriated tyrant caused between 
three or four thousand of the Jews to be scourged 
and crucified, including not only many of the no¬ 
blest and best amongst them, but also several who 
held the rank of Roman citizens. 

Immediately after this wanton massacre, on the 
very next day, while the chief priests and leading 
men, with dust on their heads and sackcloth on 
their limbs, were quelling by their entreaties the 
agitation of the survivors, the wretched procurator 
laid another crafty snare for them. He had sent 
for two cohorts from Caesarea, which, was certainly 
the most irritating locality so far as the feelings of 
the Jews were concerned, ordering them to ad¬ 
vance to Jerusalem: and then commanded the 


20 


JUDJEA CAPTA. 


people to go out and meet them with a joyous 
shout of welcome. It required the utmost stretch 
of the influence possessed by their priests and 
nobles to bring them to this cruel test ; and while 
they were persuading the Jews to obey, Florus 
despatched an order to the cohorts to respond to 
their greeting with insult; then, on the least ap¬ 
pearance of resentment or dissatisfaction on the 
Jews’ part, to put them to the sword. This, of 
course, was done ; and the next act of their blood¬ 
thirsty oppressor brought matters to a crisis. 
Strengthened by the accession of these troops, he 
attempted to take possession with them of the 
Temple, and the city at once rose in arms. The 
Romans were met, fought with, and driven back 
to their strong-hold, Antonia ; the covered way 
from which to the Temple was immediately pulled 
down by the Jews, who, stood to a man, ready to 
perish in defence of the holy house. 

At this alarming juncture, Florus appealed to 
the Roman chief, Cestius Gallus, at Csesarea ; and 
but for the interposition of Queen Bernice, he 
would probably have succeeded in bringing on the 
immediate destruction of the city and people. 
Through her means Cestius was apprised of the 
true particulars ; and king Agrippa, soon after- 
w^ards arriving at Jerusalem, successfully mediated 
between the contending parties. His address to 
the Jews is a most splendid piece, not so much of 
oratory as of argunient, and produced a happy 
effect. They promised to return to obedience, 
paid up what remained due in the shape of exact¬ 
ed tribute, and even rebuilt the communication be¬ 
tween Fort Antonia and the Temple. But Agrippa 


MEDIATION OF AGRIPPA. 


21 


went further than the more fiery spirits among 
them could brook: he pleaded for an unlimited 
submission to the profane tyrant Florus ; and for 
this he was assaulted, and, in fact, expelled from 
the city. Naturally offended at so unreasonable a 
return for his good offices, the king abandoned the 
Jews to their fate, and thenceforth all was discord 
and desolation to the end. The Jews todk by 
stratagem the strong-hold of Masada, slew the 
Roman garrison : and following the wrong counsel 
of Eleazar, a rash young man^ son of the high- 
priest and governor of the Temple, they passed a 
resolution that alarmed all the sober-minded 
amono; them. It had long been the custom to ac-, 
cept gifts from Gentiles of rank, on whose behalf 
they offered sacrifices in the Temple. Eleazar 
persuaded them to abolish this custom, in spite of 
the remonstrances of their principal men, who re¬ 
minded them that the Lord’s house was, to a great 
degree, enriched and adorned by such gifts from 
foreign princes, which their forefathers never re¬ 
fused, nor denied the intercessory service for any 
who so asked it. Indeed the records of Solomon, 
at the dedication of the first Temple, plainly imply 
as much. “ Moreover, concerning the stranger 
which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from 
a far country for thy great name’s sake, and thy 
mighty hand and thy stretched out arm; if they 
come and pray in this house, then hear thou from 
the heavens, even from thy dwelling-place, and do 
according to all that the stranger calleth to thee 
for; that all people of the earth may know thy 
name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and 


22 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


may know that this house which I have built is 
called by thy name.”* 

The most learned of their priests, men skilled in 
antiquarian research, came forward to attest the 
truth of these assertions, but in vain; no man 
would hearken to them; and the unpardonable 
affront was put upon the Roman emperor of refus¬ 
ing any longer to do sacrifice for him. 

War was now inevitable; the leaders saw it, 
and dreading the consequences, sent two embassies, 
one to Florus, the other to Agrippa, both of whom 
they invited to advance, and intimidate the turbu¬ 
lent party ere the aggressive movement should em¬ 
brace the whole population. Florus, well pleased 
at the success of his satanic wiles, took no notice, 
hoping to see such a catastrophe as the pleaders 
apprehended; but Agrippa, in whose character at 
that period shone many noble traits, confirmatory of 
the favorable impression that we gather from his 
interview with Paul, that he “ believed the 
prophets,” and therefore truly loved the Jewish 
people, immediately despatched three thousand 
horsemen to the help of those who were laboring 
to preserve the country. Thus reinforced, the 
chief men seized on Zion, the upper city ; whence 
they also endeavored to gain Moriah and the Tem¬ 
ple. Eleazar, in possession of the latter, not only 
defended it, but daily attempted to retake Zion : 
and for a whole week the conflict never flagged, 
neither party prevailing. But at the end of the 
week, hostilities, hitherto confined to the flinging 
of stones and darts, assumed a more fearful aspect j 


* 2 Chron. vi. 32, 33. 


DREADFUL SLAUGHTERS. 


23 


fire was introduced, and palaces burned to the 
ground, including, in their destructive progress, the 
most valued archives, the ancient records, and, as 
Josephus says, the nerves of the city. The war¬ 
like party, misled by Eleazar, thus obtained 
advantages fatal to themselves ; they assaulted Fort 
Antonia, slew the garrison, and greatly damaged 
the citadel with fire ; then besieged the royal pa¬ 
lace, where Agrippa’s troops had fortified them¬ 
selves, with some of the Roman soldiers and many 
of the chief men, and endeavored to batter it down. 
After a while, the besieged capitulated ; the Jews 
with their allies were permitted to escape, but the 
Romans were hunted and slain without mercy, 
as also was the high priest himself. The principal 
perpetrator of these deeds was not Eleazar, but 
Manahem, an ambitious Galilean, who, on these 
successes, aspired to kingly state; and, under pre¬ 
text of worshipping, endeavored to seize on the Tem¬ 
ple. He was resisted by Eleazar, his adherents 
routed, and himself slain. Finally, the Roman 
general, Metilius, who with a handful of soldiers 
still held a position, offered to surrender, on condi¬ 
tion of being allowed to leave the city, unarmed, 
with his men. The turbulent party among the 
Jews, now triumphant over all opposers, consent¬ 
ed ; and when the soldiers were disarmed, they, 
according to the history, slew every man of them, 
saving Metilius himself; who was spared in con¬ 
sideration of his offer to become a proselyte. 

While this took place in Jerusalem, on the very 
same day, the Greeks and other aliens in Caesarea 
rose against the Jews there, and, encouraged by 
Florus, massacred, in one hour, above twenty 


24 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


thousand helpless victims. Slaughter, to the utter¬ 
most of their power, on both sides, wherever the 
hostile nations met, became from this time the order 
of the day. The Jews and Syrians maintained 
against each other a war of extermination ; the 
former being also internally divided, and the flame 
spread far and wide. At Alexandria, by the Ro¬ 
mans, no fewer than fifty thousand Jews were put 
to death, without regard to age or sex; and in 
every place the nation, whether many or few, was 
found in arms to avenge these acts of butchery. 

At length Cestius Gallus put his army in motion, 
and, accompanied by Agrippa himself, advanced 
through the land at the head of a mighty force, de¬ 
termined to take Jerusalem and end the war. He 
took Zabulon, a strong city of Galilee, with other 
places, among which was Joppa; and having sub¬ 
dued the Jews in those parts, passed unresisted 
through Antipatris and Lydda; not indeed from 
any slackening of the people’s zeal against their 
invaders, but because all their males were assem¬ 
bled in the holy city, keeping the feast of Taber¬ 
nacles ; and finally he pitched his camp within fifty 
furlongs of Jerusalem. Here a fierce sally from 
the gates endangered the whole Roman army ; and 
though ultimately repulsed, the Jews gave the be¬ 
siegers no rest: breaking out upon them, dashing 
into their camp, carrying off* their cattle, and other 
spoil; and when Agrippa tried his ancient influ¬ 
ence as a mediator, they slew one of his ambassa¬ 
dors, and drove the other back, who scarcely saved 
himself by flight. This was the act of the turbu¬ 
lent party; to others it occasioned bitter grief, and 
led to a division ; in the midst of which Cestius 


BATTLES IN THE MOUNTAINS. 


25 


took advantage to approach as near as the hill Sco¬ 
pus, where he again encamped, only seven furlongs 
from the city. Thence he presently advanced, and 
took Bezetha ; and had he followed up his manifest 
advantage, he might have put an immediate end to 
the war. Instead of this, he suddenly, and with¬ 
out any apparent cause, raised the siege, withdraw¬ 
ing his whole army, to whom a great part of the 
inhabitants were already prepared to open the gates, 
and retreating to Scopus. The Jews pursued him, 
falling on the rear, and also on the flank, of the Ro¬ 
mans, who, dispirited by this strange movement of 
their general, were soon thrown into confusion. 
The retreat became a rout—the narrow passes and 
defiles through which they were obliged to march 
were overhung by the exulting Hebrews, who cast 
down upon them darts and missiles of every de¬ 
scription ; and not only so, but in many instances 
the Jews, well acquainted with their country, press¬ 
ed forward, took possession of these passes, and 
blocked them up mid-way; while another division 
from behind forced the enemy onward down the 
steep declivities, and in the lowest depth of those 
valleys fell upon them, as did their fathers of old 
upon the idolatrous nations of Canaan, making such 
fearful havoc that the mountain echoes of Judea 
rang to an unwonted sound—the cries, and wail¬ 
ings, and bitter lamentations of the iron-clad legions 
of Rome. These were again responded to by 
shouts of mingled joy and rage on the part of the 
Jews. It was a parenthesis in the long dark tale 
of their calamitous defeats: it was as though once 
more it might be said of Israel, “ The Lord his God 
is with him, and the shout of a King is amongst 
3 


26 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


them.” So complete was the rout, that Cestias 
only contrived by stratagem the rescue of his re¬ 
maining forces, leaving, as a prey to the victorious 
Jews, those formidable engines that were designed 
to batter down the walls of the holy city ; together 
with an immense booty, and not less than five thou¬ 
sand six hundred and eighty Roman warriors dead 
on the field. The Jews, finding it fruitless to pur¬ 
sue farther than Antipatris, returned to Jerusalem, 
having suffered scarcely any perceptible loss. 

When forewarning his disciples of what should 
come to pass, our Lord used these words : “ And 
when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with ar¬ 
mies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 
Then let them which are in Judea flee to the moun¬ 
tains, and let them which are in the midst of it de¬ 
part out, and let not them that are in the countries 
enter thereinto; for these be the days of vengeance, 
that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” 
Seeing how isolated is the position of Jerusalem, 
how conspicuous, and how completely under the 
eye of an encompassing army, a signal miracle 
would have been requisite to the fulfilment of this 
command, unless such an opening as that uncon¬ 
sciously afforded by the infatuated Celsus had ap¬ 
peared. The Christian Jews in the city amounted 
to many thousands, even long before this time, 
often enjoying a fair measure of religious tolera¬ 
tion, as it would seem ; for they were all steadfast 
in the observance of their law, as the evangelist 
tells us that they had been from the first, when 
“ they, continuing daily with one accord in the 
Temple, and breaking bread from house to house, 


CHRISTIANS IN JERUSALEM. 


27 


(lid eat their meat with singleness of heart, prais¬ 
ing God, and having favor with all the people.”* 

It is alike erroneous, though very common, to 
consider these believers as a mere handful, and to 
regard them as separated from their brethren after 
the flesh. They were exceedingly numerous, and 
they were strict observers of the Mosaic ritual, 
having the same testimony that Paul bore to his in- 
oflensiveness,—‘‘ Neither asrainst the law of the 
Jews, neither against the Temple, nor yet against 
CtEsar, have T offended anything at all.” Such 
being their position, they were free to act as they 
saw good; and when they beheld the armies that 
had compassed Jerusalem drawn off, and not only 
an unobstructed passage opened, but the warlike 
population of the city pouring out at every gate in * 
hot pursuit of the retreating foe, they knew that 
the hour was come, that they must not pause, nor 
lose a moment’s time, but hasten away to the more 
distant mountains. Their flight was not in the 
winter, neither was it on the Sabbath day,—but 
hasty indeed it must have been; and with what 
unutterable anguish of spirit must they have look¬ 
ed back on the proud, unbroken bulwarks of Zion, 
the streets of Jerusalem, already stained with the 
gore of her children slain in civil warfare, the daz¬ 
zling splendor of that majestic edifice that crowned 
the mountain of the house of the Lord ! Too 
well they knew that the drawn sword of the angel, 
once sheathed at the intercession of David, when 
there he stood by the threshing-floor of Araunah 
the Jebusite, was again pointing, suspended over 


Acts ii. 46, 47. 


2S 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


the beloved, the guilty city, to smite and to destroy 
to the uttermost; for now were the days of ven¬ 
geance come, when every lawful prophecy must 
receive its fulfilment: and, Jews as they were to 
the inmost core of their devoted hearts, how must 
the laments of the patriot prophet Jeremiah have 
resounded from their lips, as weeping they pursued 
their way. Appalling as had been the scenes of 
the last few months within those walls, freely as 
blood had flowed on every side,—the hand of 
many a Hebrew being against his brother,—still, 
how dear, how sacred, were the very stones, soon 
to be thrown down in utter ruin, how unutterably 
precious that stately house of God where they had 
walked in unity, and taken sweet counsel together ! 
Accustomed as we are to witness the breaking of 
all national and domestic ties when a Jew believes 
and is baptized in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, 
we can scarcely conceive what must have been the 
feelings of such a Jew, living in peace and harmo¬ 
ny in the midst of all his brethren, uniting in their 
daily services, holding sacred all that had been of 
old ordained, keeping holy with their nation from 
all parts of the world the feasts of the Lord, and 
regarding their Zion, the city of their solemni¬ 
ties,” as established to be the joy of the whole 
earth, now leaving it, leaving it for ever, leaving it 
to defilement, to destruction, to the desolations of 
many generations,—we have no hearts to sympa¬ 
thize with them, not entering, as we ought to do, 
and as they did, into the very depths of their Di¬ 
vine Master’s weeping compassion, when he fore¬ 
told what they now beheld: “ The days shall 
come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a 


A SAD FAREWELL. 


29 


trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep 
thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with 
the ground, and thy children within thee; and they 
shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, 
because thou knewest not the time of thy visita¬ 
tion.’’ 

Yes, they went forth ; and as they went the tow¬ 
ers of Zion lessened on their backward, gaze, the 
burnished gold of the Lord’s house grew dim, the 
circuit of the walls became an indistinct outline, and 
soon, too soon, the swelling hills shut out even that 
faint vision of the holy city. Then burst forth the 
wail that would no longer be hushed, and those poor 
exiles, while humbly rejoicing in the rescuing mercy 
of the Lord, extended to them and to their little ones, 
went on their way, lamenting for her who was to be 
the spoiler’s prey. “ If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, 
let my right hand forget!” 


CHAPTER III. 


While the men of Jerusalem were makino; havoc 
of the Roman army on its retreat, a most flagitious, 
but not unusual act of cowardly revenge was in 
contemplation at Damascus, where ten thousand in¬ 
offensive, unarmed, and imprisoned Jews were deli¬ 
berately butchered in cold blood, by the murderous 
knife, in one hour's time. This of course heightened 
the exasperation of their brethren, who proceeded 
to put Jerusalem and all Judaea into the most defen¬ 
sive state possible, choosing generals for the various 
provinces, and exhibiting inflexible determination 
to retain that independence, yea, to recover that su¬ 
periority, which was of old the gift of the Most 
High to the chosen nation. But in the midst of this 
enterprising display, deep sadness possessed the 
minds of the most reflecting portion, while such as 
looked for signs from heaven found many confirma¬ 
tions of their worst fears. Selfish, rapacious, and 
tyrannical men began—as in circumstances of popu¬ 
lar distress such characters are always found to do 
—to gather followers around them, who became 
hardened by degress, until they were proof alike 
against the pleadings of religious and of natural 
feeling, seeking their own advantage and the public 
wreck. Meanwhile the disastrous tidings of Cel- 
sus’s strange mismanagement and defeat, reached 
the seat of empire ; and Nero, satisfied that such a 


PREDICTIONS FULFILLED. 


31 


people as the Jews had shown themselves to be, 
would not quail before any but extraordinary demon¬ 
strations of power, gave the command to Vespasian, 
as the bravest and the ablest veteran that Rome could 
furnish. Assisted by his son Titus, this general soon 
marshalled an army fully equal to the conquest of a 
much more extensive territory, the capture of a 
stronger city, and the subversion of a more power¬ 
ful people than those against whom they were sent; 
insufficient to over-run a rood of Judiea’s soil, to 
shake a single stone in the walls of Jerusalem, or to 
injure a hair on the head of a Jewish child, unless the 
Lord God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, had 
been wroth with his inheritance, and rejected as 
reprobate silver his transgressing people, making 
good the menace spoken many ages before, in the 
prospect of this day of provocation and overwhelm¬ 
ing calamity—“ I will heap mischiefs upon them ; I 
will sjiend mine arrows upon them. They shall be 
.burnt wdth hunger, and devoured wdth burning heat, 
and with bitter destruction. I will also send the teeth 
of beasts upon them, with the poisons of serpents of 
the dust. The sword without, and terror within, 
shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, 
the suckling also with the man of grey hairs.” 

Far be it from the writer, far from every reader 
of these pages, to review with complacent acquies¬ 
cence the terrible dealings of the Most High with 
his ancient nation. No,—iudsment is his strange 
work ; he has not, nor ever could have, any pleas¬ 
ure in the death of the wicked, and ill indeed does 
it become any one bearing the name of Christian to 
take up as a luatter of amusement, or as an indif¬ 
ferent thing, or as a pleasing spectacle of Divine re- 


32 


JUD^A CAPTA 


tribution, the tale of that over which, in its pros- ■ 
pect, Jesus wept tears of yearning sorrow. Neither ' 
is it safe so to do ; for in the same sublime song of 
Moses just quoted, we find the assurances that the 
Lord, though he deliver up his people for their 
transgressions, wiW yet avenge upon their adversa¬ 
ries the cruelties perpetrated against them, with a 
marked distinction in favor of such as extend 
sympathy to his scattered flock. Rejoice, O ye 
nations, with his people; for he will avenge the 
blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to 
his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land 
and to his people.” And again is the promise 
given to the friends of afflicted Judah: “Rejoice 
ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye 
that love her ; rejoice for joy with her all ye that 
mourn for her, that ye may suck and be satisfied 
with the breasts of her consolations, that ye may 
milk out and be delighted with the abundance of 
her glory.” 

True it is that an awful sense of departure from 
the pure faith of the Holy Scriptures, and from the 
practice resulting therefrom, marked the epoch of 
which we treat, while sin abounded on all sides, 
and in many forms. Still we are fully persuaded 
that all the darker shades of the picture have been 
grievously blackened over, first by the foreign influ¬ 
ence under which Josephus wrote, who supplied the 
key-note to succeeding historians : and latterly by 
the self-excusing bitterness of chroniclers among the 
earlier Gentile Christians, who had already imbibed, 
with the milk of Rome’s semi-pagan Christianity, 
her unswerving hatred of the J ews, gradually souring 
into its present state of papal anti-christianism. We 


CALUMNIES OF JOSEPHUS. 


33 


do not credit the half of what is thus handed down 
as history, in reference to the dreadful scenes too 
certainly enacted within the holy city; we will re¬ 
tail no more of it than is necessary to the plainly 
authentic narrative of what was accomplished from 
without. We see no practical use in heaping con¬ 
demnation on a race of our elder brethren lono; since 
gathered to the dust, and representing them as 
something worse than devils in human form. We 
know that they walked contrary to God, because, 
unless they had done so, the fearful curses already 
referred to would not have come upon them, as they 
did, to the uttermost; but with the tales of Josephus 
and his successors of the outrageous crimes com¬ 
mitted, the more than maniac, the truly diabolical 
acts of wanton ferocity perpetrated against them¬ 
selves in the midst of the besieged city, we cannot 
soil our pages, nor harden our own, and our readers’ 
hearts. 

The Roman army was equipped few: this expedition 
with all that the consummate skill in manslaughter 
by which the iron empire had established itself upon 
the earth could suggest. It is described in the pro¬ 
phetic Word as a beast, which, unlike the Assyrian 
lion, the Persian bear, and the Grecian leopard,be¬ 
longed to no known race, but was “ dreadful and ter¬ 
rible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron 
teeth; it devoured, and brake in pieces, and stamped 
the residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse 
from all the beasts that were before it.” Such, to 
the view of Daniel, was the Roman empire; such 
it has proved to be, whether regarded in its ancient 
and temporal, or in its modern and spiritual aspect, 
and such, 'n an especial manner, has it ever been to 


34 


JUD^A CAPTA, 


♦ 

Israel. As a beast to which a man’s heart was 
never given, this power has scattered, and still 
scatters, the “ holy people” of Daniel, the Jews; 
and it may be interesting to trace the particulars of 
the array in which the army of this beast went forth 
against the couchant lion of Judeea, to hunt and to 
drag him to its imperial den. 

Nothing could be more admirably conceived than 
the arrangement of the Roman troops, already from 
their very infancy inured to every description of 
martial practice, conducted with the most scrupu¬ 
lous regard to exact discipline, silence, order and 
despatch. Josephus aptly says that their exercises 
might be called unbloody battles, and their battles 
bloody exercises. War was to them a science, the 
first of sciences, and the main study of their lives. 
Men’s praises formed their earthly heaven, beyond 
which they looked not—disgrace in the world’s sight 
the only hell they found. When a Roman soldier 
marched forth on a campaign, he believed himself to 
be laudably fulfilling the first end of his existence ; 
and never was he so glorious in his own eyes as 
when reeking with the blood of the slain, and bend¬ 
ing under the weight of spoil rent from the peaceful 
dwellings of an enemy’s country,—all being his le¬ 
gitimate enemies W'ho were not tributary to Rome, 
lying still and motionless beneath the imperial hoof. 
His bodily array was excellently adapted for the 
work that he undertook, the foot soldiers being 
armed with cuirass and helmet, on their left side a 
long sword, on their right a dagger. A long buck¬ 
ler rested on the arm, sufficient to protect their 
bodies from hostile darts, and these bucklers they 
ofteo turned to singular use in assaulting a wall, as 


ENGINES OF DESTRUCTION. 


35 


we shall hereafter see ; a keen spear was in their 
hands, and in a basket each man carried a saw, a 
pick-axe, an axe, and a stout thong of leather with 
a hook attached, besides three days’ provisions. 
The cavalry were similarly protected by helm and 
cuirass, having a long sword on the right side, a 
shield resting obliquely against the horse’s body, a 
quiver containing darts with heads equally broad as 
a spear’s point, and a long pole in their hand. Thus 
equipped, the general being at their head, and the 
last of the trumpet-signals having sounded, a crier, 
stationed at the general’s right hand, thrice put the 
question. Were they now ready to go forth to war 
or not ? A universal shout of “We are ready,” 
then burst forth, accompanied with the elevation of 
their right hands, and under the enthusiastic feeling 
thus excited they set forward. 

Arrived at a suitable position for encamping, the 
order in which they did so was no less striking. 
When on hostile ground, they not only pitched their 
tents with the exactness of a well-planned town, but 
walled the camp around. If the ground presented 
an irregular surface they levelled it, and having 
placed the general’s tent, much like a temple, in the 
exact centre, surrounded by those of the inferior 
commanders, they ranged the other tents in streets', 
with mathematical precision ; forming four gates, 
and strengthening the outer wall with towers, be¬ 
tween which they placed the engines so terribly effi¬ 
cacious in their campaigns. These consisted prin¬ 
cipally of the battering-ram and the catapult. The 
former was an enormous beam of wood, at the end 
of which was a solid piece of iron, shaped like a 
ram’s head j and this being slung with considerable 


36 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


art in a suitable framework was pulled back, by the 
united strength of manv men, as far as it would strain, 
and then allowed to swing forward with an impetus 
that drove the iron head so violently against any op¬ 
posing substance as quickly to batter down the 
stoutest wall by its rapidly-repeated strokes. The 
catapult was yet more terrible ; resembling an im¬ 
mense cross-bow, it had power to hurl with irre¬ 
sistible violence not only darts, but huge stones, 
fragments of rock, bars of iron, and every destruc¬ 
tive missile that could be collected. A shot from 
one of these deadly engines could level a tower, 
and literally dash to fragments a body of men, scat¬ 
tering them in the air like straws. Such were 
some of the munitions of war contained in a Roman 
camp. When we add to this the clock-work regu¬ 
larity with which every order was issued, every ac¬ 
tion performed, every meal served up, and even the 
morning and evening salutations of officers and men 
interchanged, it is not possible to conceive a more ex¬ 
quisite picture of perfect discipline, comfort, and mu¬ 
tual confidence, than that which existed in a Roman 
camp. It was evidently formed on the perfection 
of all models, that of Israel in the wilderness. 

When a position was to be abandoned, the men 
having marched out with all their personal equip¬ 
ments and weapons of every kind, the camp was 
fired, and burnt to the ground ; thus at once ridding 
the army of a considerable incumbrance, saving 
much valuable time, and depriving the enemy of 
such advantages as might result from spoiling, or 
from converting to his own use what had been erect¬ 
ed. The extent of their encampments, and conse¬ 
quently the charred ruin that remained, combined 


R0MAN AMBITION 


37 


■with the plunder of surrounding districts to supply 
their need, gives singular force to the prophet’s 
description : “ A fire devoureth before them ; 
and behind them a flame burneth ; the land is 
as the garden of Eden before them, and behind 
them a desolate wilderness ; yea, and nothing 
shall escape them.” “ It devoured and brake 
in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet 
of it.” 

Considering the object for which man was made, 
that he might glorify his righteous Creator, whose 
tender mercies are over all his works ; who desireth 
not the death of a sinner, and who never willingly 
afflicts the children of men, it is indeed an awful 
contemplation to trace the triumph of Satan through 
succeeding ages in the most powerful empire that 
ever arose upon earth, making it the one end of 
every man’s being to hurt and to destroy his fellow- 
men. Conquest, for its own sake, was the contin¬ 
ual pursuit of the Romans. A fierce and cruel 
ambition, a desire to wade to the chief places in 
every nation through the blood of its people, a de¬ 
termination to endure no equal in the ferocious art 
of homicide, and a vaunting confidence in their own 
unapproachable pre-eminence in that horrid trade, 
combined to form the character of the race, who 
certainly deserve to hold the highest rank among 
the destroyers of their kind. We have dwelt on 
the spectacle of their military armaments not for 
any gratification to be derived therefrom. God 
forbid ! but because they and their proceedings 
were so minutely described in various parts of the 
prophetic Word as to render it a commentary on 
holy writ; more especially when such a host went 
4 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


3S 

forth to execute judgment upon a people whose 
ancient prerogative it was to root out from the face of 
the earth nations defiling it by their abominable 
idolatries. To us it is also interesting, inasmuch as 
these very Romans, commanded by Vespasian, had 
been making havoc of our own forefathers, and 
drenching Britain in the blood of her children. The 
ground beneath our feet has echoed to the tramp of 
these steel-clad armies; and in our rural walks we 
frequently may trace the well-marked boundary of 
some such camp as has been here described ; with 
its rampart mound, its external fosse, and other re¬ 
mains surviving the havoc of eighteen centuries. 
But never did the hosts of Rome go forth to a work 
so fearful as that which led them to make Judsea a 
spoil, and .Jerusalem a prey, Josephus, after giving 
a minute account of what we have briefly sketch¬ 
ed, significantly adds, that he did it “ not so much 
with the intention of comrnendino^ the Romans as 
of comforting those that have been conquered by 
them ; and for the deterring of others from attempt^ 
ing innovations under their government^ We, 

therefore, make due allowance for exaggeration, 
where the proposed object was to show how 
dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly,’ 
was the Roman beast ; but genuine history fully 
confirms his statement of their military aspect, or¬ 
der of march, and plan of encampment. 

From Antioch, the capital of Syria, Vespasian led 
his army to Ptolemais, where Titus joined him with 
another host; and they marched at once upon Gali¬ 
lee in the following order. The auxiliaries, more 
lightly armed than the Roman soldiers, with the 
body of archers, formed the van ; keeping somewhat 


ORDER OF MARCH. 


39 


in advance, that they might carefully explore the 
country, and give notice of any hostile or other ob¬ 
struction ; searching especially where the nature 
of the ground admitted some possible ambuscade. 
Next came that portion of the army which was clad 
in complete armor; then a company formed by 
drafting ten out of every hundred men, whose bu¬ 
siness it was to measure out and adjust the camp ; 
for which they carried the requisite implements in 
addition to their arms. Pioneers, prepared to ad¬ 
vance and level the ground, or otherwise to remove 
whatever might obstruct the march, formed the 
next division ; after whom came the carriages of 
the general and subordinate commanders, guarded 
by a company of horsemen ; and then Vespasian 
himself, with a select escort, immediately followed 
by his own cavalry, a peculiar corps chosen out of 
every legion. After these came the mules, heavily 
laden with those ponderous articles already speci¬ 
fied, which, when put together, formed the engines 
for a siege. Commanders of cohorts, and tri¬ 
bunes, guarded by another picked band, succeeded; 
and after them ,the military ensigns, surrounding 
the abomination of desolation,” the imperial Ea¬ 
gle, held most sacred by the superstitious pagans, 
whose vain fables armed it with the thunder of 
their principal demigod. The trumpeters held 
their station close upon these ensigns, immediately 
preceding the main body of the army, formed in 
squadrons and battalions six deep ; a single centu¬ 
rion bringing up the rear. A mixed multitude, mer¬ 
cenaries and irregular troops, servants, muleteers, 
and plundering vagrants ready to fly upon any spoil, 
completed this fearful array ; and the first place on 


40 


JUDAEA CAPTA. 


% 


which they seized was the city of the Gadarenes ; 
the place where, terrified by the destruction of 
their swine, the inhabitants had met Jesus, and be¬ 
sought him to depart out of their coasts. Alas ! a 
far different visitation had now befallen them. Ves¬ 
pasian took the place at the first onset, and delivered 
over to the sword the youths, women, and child¬ 
ren, whom he found therein ; the men being nearly 
all absent, probably being gone up to one of the 
great feasts at Jerusalem. In like manner were 
the surrounding villages pillaged, burnt, and cov¬ 
ered with slaughtered bodies ; all who were not 
butchered being carried into slavery. It seemed a 
prosperous beginning, and promising him an easy 
conquest of the whole land ; and, elated with his 
success, he marched forward to capture Jotapata, a 
fortified town, which he could not safely leave in 
the rear of his army. 


CHAPTER IV. 


This city of Jotapata, which, besides its natural 
strength of position, was well fortified, and garri¬ 
soned by a determined body of Jews under Jose¬ 
phus, proved a formidable obstacle in the invader’s 
path. For no less than forty-seven days did the 
heroic defenders baffle all that Roman might, craft, 
and violence could bring to bear against them. 
The utmost force of their arms, every stratagem, 
and every conceivable species of barbarity, proved 
ineffectual to conquer the resolution of those devot¬ 
ed Jews. When first the enemy placed them¬ 
selves in triple array round the city, wdth a terri¬ 
ble display of their commanding force, the Jews 
leaped out over the walls, fell upon them, and main¬ 
tained a desperate battle till night parted them, 
when they retired within their respective gates ; 
but on the following morning they again sallied 
forth, and in like manner for five days repeated the 
assault on the Roman lines. To estimate aright 
the courage of its defenders, w'e must bear in mind 
that the city stood on an exceedingly high hill, sur¬ 
rounded by other mountains that completely en¬ 
closed it. On all sides this hill was precipitous, 
excepting the north, where a gradual slope ter¬ 
minated in a plain ; and some part of the city 
was built on the descent. Josephus had encom¬ 
passed the lower ground with a wall for additional 


4 * 


42 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


security. It was over this rampart that the Jews 
flung themselves in headlong determination upon 
the besiegers ; while from the upper heights their 
wives, children, parents, were spectators of the 
deadly combat. Vespasian found it necessary to 
call a council of war for deliberation, which 
ended in despatching the men in all directions to 
fell the timber on the surrounding mountains, to 
collect larsfe stones, and bring together whatever 
might assist in forming a bank, and storming the 
city. In the prosecution of this work, the very 
hillocks were torn down, and brought in heaps of 
earth to the spot, where powerful and expert hands 
moulded them into an embankment; while under 
cover of hurdles formed of branches of trees just 
felled, the engines, the battering ram, catapult, and 
other formidable implements of assault, were ad¬ 
vantageously placed. But the Jews were not idle : 
they hurled large stones and fragments of rock from 
their intrenchments upon the workmen, breaking 
the protecting hurdles, and crushing the men ; or 
by well-directed showers of darts drove them from 
their posts. 

In the face of this opposition, the Romans suc¬ 
ceeded in planting a hundred and sixty engines 
against the hill, and from these they threw up not 
only stones and ordinary darts, but lances mixed 
with masses of combustible matter ignited, and sent 
in showers upon the wall, whence its defenders were 
presently driven; but without advantage to the 
enemy : for now they made separate sallies, coming 
unexpectedly in small bands upon detached parts of 
the outworks, tearing away the hurdles, and slaying 
the workmen. This compelled Vespasian to inter- 


DEFENSIVE STRATAGEM. 


43 


mit the assault, in order to strengthen his works and 
accomplish a nearer approach to the walls, while 
the Jew's, wdth equal celerity, improved their de¬ 
fences. They stretched the flexible hides of newly 
slain oxen upon strong stakes, which, yielding mo¬ 
mentarily to the blow, allowed the heavy missiles 
to expend their force, and completely protected the 
garrison in their new occupation of raising the wall 
to the height of tw'enty cubits. Even fire proved 
harmless against the hides ; they w'ere too moist to 
ignite, and in the very teeth of the amazed and mor¬ 
tified assailants, strong towers were added, wfith bat¬ 
tlements along the whole ridge of w'all: this beino* 
done, the sallies were renewmd with fresh vigor; 
W'hile Vespasian resolved to remain quiet, acting 
only on the defensive, until the city should be starved 
into a surrender. His principal hope was built on 
the probable failure of water within the w^alls; and 
of this there was present danger ; but the children 
of Israel, preferring death in battle to the lingering 
agonies of starvation, by a desperate stratagem 
deluded the enemy on this point,—they saturated 
their garments with fresh water, now becoming- 
scarce, and hung them on the battlements to dry. 
The Romans, amazed to see the precious element 
running profusely down the walls, concluded that 
they had some inexhaustible supply, and no longer 
hoping to famish them, renewed the attack. Some 
daring individuals also had contrived to lower them¬ 
selves down a precipice so steep that the besiegers 
never dreamed of guarding its foot, and covered 
with sheepskins, crept warily through the woods, 
bringing home supplies from their brethren in the 
neighboring valleys. The accidental discovery of this 


44 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


stratagem convinced Vespasian that he must take 
the city, or lose more time before it than he could 
afford. At this juncture Josephus resolved to get 
away secretly, and provide for his own safety; but 
his design being discovered, the agony of the people, 
old men, children, and women with infants in their 
arms, throwing themselves at his feet with bitter 
cries and lamentations, imploring him to remain, 
and, as he confesses, leading him to fear that if he 
did not yield he would be detained by force, pre¬ 
vailed against his selfish project. He armed himself 
with the general despair, and told them now was the 
time to begin to fight in earnest, when no hope of 
deliverance remained. “’Tis a brave thing,” said 
he, to prefer glory before life, and to set about 
some such noble undertaking as may be remembered 
by posterity.” It is remembered by posterity, but 
with bow different a feeling from that excited by the 
conduct of Nehemiah, or the many ancient worthies 
of Israel who wrought mighty deeds by faith in the 
God of their father Abraham ! Out of his own mouth 
we are compelled to judge this degenerate Hebrew, 
who mocked with the pagan cant of fame and glory 
the ears of his perishing people. After uttering these 
vain words, he headed a sally of unprecedented 
daring. Dispersing the enemy from before the walls, 
they cut their way to the very camp, and tore the 
covering from many tents before they were repulsed. 
In all these encounters the heavy armor of the Ro¬ 
mans proved an encumbrance to them, enabling the 
Jews, at will, to regain their w'alls, and take breath 
in the bosom of their mountain home. Their most 
effective assailants were the Arabian archers and 
Syrian slingers,—the sons of Ishmael inflicted many 


STORMING OF JOTAPATA. 


45 


a wound on the children of Isaac. Still the balance 
appeared favorable to the besieged, and Vespasian 
decided on bringing up his last resort, the terrible 
battering-ram. A number of their ordinary engines 
were ranged before the most assailable point of the 
bulwarks ; archers and slingers stood beside them, 
and under their galling discharge the Jews were 
driven behind the battlements ; while, cased in a 
framework of hurdles, and further protected by a 
thick covering of skins, the ram was planted, and 
the first fierce blow of its enormous iron head 
caused that hastily-built wall to totter to its founda¬ 
tion. Terror and dismay seized on the citizens, but 
the garrison speedily devised an adequate defence. 
Filling large sacks with chaff, they slung them 
thickly over the wall, and the stroke of the ram fell 
as powerless upon these soft bodies as had the ear¬ 
lier missiles against the fresh hides. The Romans 
removed the ram ; the Jews, with equal celerity, 
displaced their sacks, and fortified with them what¬ 
soever part of the wall was menaced. Then came 
the iron hooks of the soldiery into requisition ; they 
fixed them on long poles, and so tore down the 
sacks, giving full effect to the blows of the deadly 
engine. Immediately the Jews, forsaking the wall, 
burst out in three several places, armed with burn¬ 
ing torches ; one party set fire to the banks, another 
to the hurdles, and the third to the machine itself. 
Sulphur, bitumen and pitch, were among the mate¬ 
rials abundantly used by the assailants, together with 
vast quantities of dry wood. On these the flames 
seized,—a gulph of fire interposed between the 
enemy and their most important work, rendering ap- 


46 


JUD^A CAPTA 


proach impossible, and in one hour the work of many 
toilsome days and nights was consumed to ashes. 

In the midst of this achievement, Eleazer, a Ga¬ 
lilean Jew, took so correct an aim from the wall 
with an immense stone, that he broke off the iron 
ram’s-head from the beam; then descending, caught 
it up, and bore it in triumph to the battlements, 
amid a shower of darts. There, mortally wounded, 
he stood exultingly in the face of the enraged be¬ 
siegers, until, pierced with many shafts, he fell down 
dead, still grasping his trophy. The fire having 
spent itself, they proceeded to repair their loss, and 
again erected the ram against the same point. 
Here Vespasian was slightly wounded,—an event 
that stimulated his army to renewed efforts. The 
Jews, meanwhile, though falling dead in heaps, 
ceased not to assail the ram, and those who worked 
it, with stones, darts, fire, and every possible instru¬ 
ment of offensive warfare. They effected little, and 
suffered much ; the lights that they bore rendered 
them, as night closed, clear marks for hostile arch¬ 
ery, while darkness, resting on the engines and their 
guards, baffled the assailant’s eye. That was a 
fearful night! the thundering strokes of the ram, 
and volleys of immense stones, darts, and human 
bodies continually hurled against the walls, were 
responded to by the cries of terrified women and 
children, the shrieks of their despair, and the deep 
groans of the dying, who knew that they fell in vain. 
These mingled sounds, swelled by the Roman shout 
of menacing, exulting rage, were caught up by a 
thousand mountain echoes and reverberated aigain 
and again; affrighting those once peaceful, once 
^^PPy> most blessed retreats, where Hebrew 


DESPERATE DEFENCE. 


47 


shepherds were wont to pasture their flocks, and the 
maidens of Israel to breathe in sacred dances, the 
praises of the Lord. We cannot dwell on the awfully 
graphic details that follow—we must hasten onward. 
The breach was made, and the Jewish commander, 
preparatory to one last, desperate defensive exploit, 
ordered the women to be shut up in their houses, lest 
the sight of their despairing terror should unman the 
garrison ; for when they saw the walls cast down, ' 
and the terrible array beyond of armed foes, to whom 
the very name of mercy was unknown, they uttered 
an outcry so piercing that it might well melt into 
more than woman’s softness the heart of man. Ay, 
the hearts of Judah’s men ; the Roman beast, the 
‘‘ dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly,’^ 
had no heart for any plea to move. 

The ladders were planted, all the trumpets gave 
out at once their loudest blast, and on came the iron 
legions in irresistible array, with a shout so overpow¬ 
ering that the Jews stopped their ears from hearing 
it, while they bent their bodies to elude a volley of 
darts actually intercepting the light of day around 
them by its density. They then burst out once more, 
to encounter the steadily-advancing foe, and choked 
up the pathway with their dead and dying bodies. 
They fell in vain. On came the legions still, and 
all was then lost, had not another daring act of des¬ 
peration checked their progress. Numbers of the 
Jews fled to their stores, and filling every iron pot 
they could find with oil, heated it to a boiling pitch, 
and poured it on the Romans, flinging the burning 
vessels after it. While this unexpected manoeuvre 
took effect on the enemy’s van, whose sudden retreat 
writhing in torture, threw the rest into confusion^ 


48 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


the Jews made the most of the interval to cover the 
steep with grease ; so that on rallying to the charge, 
the heavily-armed assailants w’-ere unable to main, 
tain a footing on the slippery ground, but fell back« 
ward on their comrades, and on the engines, and 
banks, where they were slaughtered to a great 
amount: insomuch that Vespasian, instead of plant¬ 
ing his ensign on the height of Jotapata, was com¬ 
pelled to call in his forces, and secure them within 
their entrenchments ; nor did he resume the storming 
of the city, convinced that it would be necessary first 
to elevate his banks above the level of the walls, and 
to erect towers of such commanding height that no 
weapon from below might reach the men stationed 
on their battlements. This occupied some days, and 
how long the besieged might have protracted their 
intrepid defence none can say;—treachery from 
within accomplished what the mighty armament of 
Rome could not, in more than six weeks’ struggle, 
achieve. A deserter from the city betrayed its 
actual condition, and directed Vespasian to take it 
by surprise. They entered it in the night, slaugh¬ 
tered the watch in silence and before the day dawned 
were masters of the place ; unsuspected by the 
sleeping inhabitants, who woke but to perish by the 
hands of the merciless foe. A strange heavy mist 
overspread the scene, as though that work of blood 
were too piteous for the face of heaven to look upon. 
Confused in a dense cloud, naked, helpless, hopeless, 
unable to offer any defence, and without taking the 
life of an assailant, the men of Jotopata offered their 
'necks to the savage soldiers whose weapons glanced 
on their awakening eyes. Not one was spared ; on 
that day all were put to death who could be openly 


THE CLOSING MASSACRE. 


49 


seen, and the victors rested to ravage in the spoil. On 
the following day a strict search was instituted into 
every cavern and possible hiding-place, whence 
many more were dragged forth and butchered. 
Josephus himself and one companion were spared. 
Twelve hundred desolate women and little babes 
were reserved for captivity, far, far worse than 
death. Forty thousand Jewish men and youths had 
shed their blood in the defence, and in the massacre 
that ended it. The city was demolished, the wall 
was razed, and the silence of death soon reigned 
unbroken around. 

“ Oh that mine eyes were waters, and my head 
a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and 
night for the slain of the daughter of my people !” 


b 


CHAPTER V. 


It is not our purpose to follow the Roman invader 
step by step in his career of blood, nor to trace the 
alternate workings of brute courage and dastardly 
fear in his sanguinary proceedings. We pass over 
the successive outrages perpetrated at Joppa, and in 
Tarichcea; but at the sea fight on Genesareth, and its 
results, we must pause for a moment. Tarichaea stood 
upon its borders, and when Titus, to whose lot it fell 
to command there, had desolated it to his satisfaction, 
he found that a great number of the inhabitants had 
fled to their little ships, and were sailing on the lake, 
or sea, of Tiberias, in the vain hope of ultimately 
escaping. On this he dispatched a messenger to 
his father, who immediately joined him, directing 
the equipment of a number of vessels for the pur¬ 
suit. 

Against these vessels, fitted for the purpose and 
manned by Roman soldiery, the poor fugitives could 
not possibly offer any effectual resistance; they, 
however, did their best, manoeuvring on the water, 
casting stones at the enemy, which harmlessly re¬ 
bounded from the iron mail, and receiving in their 
own defenceless bodies the Roman darts. When 
some determined crew dared an enemy’s crew to the 
fight, the latter caught up long poles, with which 
they reached them, thrust them through, or forced 
them overboard, or, leaping furiously into their frail 


MARINE DISASTER. 


61 


barks, slew them with the sword. Frequently they 
ran down upon one of the “ little ships” breaking it 
in the middle by the violence of the shock, and 
when the drowning crew lifted up their hands in 
supplication for mercy, they received such mercy as 
Rome is ever wont to extend,—those pleading hands 
were presently chopped otF by the savage soldiers, 
and the heads that rose above the blood-stained 
waters were mown like grass by the sweep of the 
glittering sword. Some, wrecked in their shattered 
vessels on the shore, leaped to land ; others gained 
it by swimming, and ere they could recover breath, 
or stand on the defensive, they were slaughtered by 
the troops who thronged the margin of the lake. 
Not one escaped. Six thousand five hundre.d man¬ 
gled bodies^ polluted the water, or sweltered in cor¬ 
ruption on its banks. Capernaum, one of the love¬ 
liest and most fertile tracts of country under heaven, 
was rendered loathsome by the exhalations that 
poisoned the air; while the piteous spectacle of those 
ghastly and swollen bodies, outstretched beneath 
the glaring sun, the miserable wrecks of their poor 
broken navy, and the ripple of blood, rather than 
water, upon the verdant shore, gemmed as it was 
with flowers and shrubs cf glorious beauty, even 
to the point where that crimson ripple paused, 
wrung exclamations of compassion, it is said, even 
from the Roman manslayers, whose hands had 
wrought the rum. 

Tariclisea was peopled, w^hen Titus advanced up¬ 
on it, by a mingled, but not united, population, com¬ 
posed of its original inhabitants and a body of for¬ 
eigners whose presence they deprecated. These 
latter had offered the resistance that exasperated 


52 


JUD-EA CAPTA. 


Titus, while the former showe’d all willingness to 
submit to the Roman, and even fell unresistingly in 
the slaughter, so that a great number of them were 
spared as having given no offence, and reserved by 
Titus for the decision of his father. Vespasian, after 
witnessing the marine massacre, and ascertaining 
that none survived excepting these captives, as¬ 
cended the tribunal, surrounded by his chief officers, 
to determine their fate. He seemed somewhat in¬ 
clined to spare them, but those about him argued, 
first, that nothing could be unjust or impious that 
was perpetrated against Jews ; and, secondly, that 
expediency required their destruction, lest they 
might" hereafter revolt and give him trouble. The 
deed suggested—that of a promiscuous slaughter, in 
cold blood, of a multitude of innocent, unoflending 
suppliants, whose safety he had already guaranteed 
—appeared too infamous for even a Roman general 
to engage in, while the heart-rending spectacle above 
described lay outspread before them ; he, therefore, 
anxious to avoid rousing the whole country against 
him, used a little dissimulation, leading the victims 
to believe that their lives were given them for a 
prey, and directing them to leave the place, but by 
no other road than that which led to Tiberias. The 
poor creatures, rejoicing in their escape, collected 
their moveable property and departed for Tiberias, 
which was immediately surrounded by the army, 
who suffered no one to leave it until Vespasian 
himself arrived, personally to superintend the exe¬ 
cution of his fiendish plan. He commanded the 
whole body of fugitives to be assembled in the 
stadium, and there directed the immediate murder 
of the old men and such as he deemed useless, in 


Vespasian’s treachery. 


53 


the presence of their agonized families, to the num¬ 
ber of twelve hundred : from the young men he 
selected six thousand of the strongest and sent them 
to Nero, to dig through the isthmus. Thirty 
thousand four hundred he sold for slaves to whoso¬ 
ever would purchase them, making a present to 
King Agrippa of a large number, his own subjects, 
with free leave to dispose of them, as he pleased; 
but Agrippa, to his shame and everlasting disgrace, 
sold these also to slavery. 

It is not possible to leave this heart-rending 
scene without recalling the time back, a few years 
previously, when the waters of that lake, Gene- 
sareth, roused into a storm that threatened the ex¬ 
istence of some little ships proceeding towards the 
shores of Capernaum, were stilled at once into per¬ 
fect peace at the command of Jesus ; of him who 
came not to destro}' men, but to save ; of him who 
went about through all those coasts performing 
miracles of healing, forewarning the impenitent of 
coming woes, and teaching the things that pertain 
to the kingdom of God. Far be it from us to 
charge upon a distant generation the offences of a 
former race ; further still the feeling that could re¬ 
joice over the terrible fulfilment of what was spok¬ 
en even in the hearing of some who lived to fall 
under the murderous hand of the pagan foe. But 
spoken it was to the Galileans of that generation, 
by the lip of Him whom they rejected, and whose 
heart yearned towards them in tender compassion, 
while his voice declared the fearful future that 
awaited them. “ And thou, Capernaum, which 
art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to 
hell : for if the mighty works which had been done 
5 * 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


54 

in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have re¬ 
mained until this. But 1 say unto }ou, that it 
shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in 
the day of judgment than for thee.” Then follow¬ 
ed the word of invitation, so gentle, so gracious, so 
pleadingly tender ! ‘‘ Come unto me, all ye that la¬ 
bor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest 
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my 
burden is light.” Alas, alas, Capernaum ! thou 
didst despise that voice of warning, disregard that 
call, thrust from thee that easy yoke of love and low¬ 
liness, and what ensued ? Sodom fell, consumed in 
a moment by flaming fire ; her children saw the 
flash, and shrieked, and perished. But her fate was 
tolerable, was enviable to thine. O that thou hadst 
listened to him who in turn would have heard and 
saved what time the storm fell upon thee, unhappy 
Capernaum! 

The Roman vulture having gorged himself with 
blood and spoil, next polluted with his presence the 
village of Emmaus, having before him an arduous 
feat in the purposed reduction of Gamala; a place 
naturally more impregnable than Jotapata had been. 
So exceedingly abrupt was its steep acclivity, that 
the houses, standing very thick and close together, 
appeared to be built one upon another: rising to the 
top of the mountain, which, where not quite pre¬ 
cipitous, was very strongly defended by a deep 
oblique ditch, mines, and a wall. An immensely 
steep point of rock, rising in front of, and above the 
houses, formed a natural citadel to the town behind 
it, completing the resemblance of a camel’s back, 


EXTRAORDINARY CONFLICT. 


65 


from whence the city takes its name. Here Agrippa 
had wearied himself with a seven months’ siege, 
without producing the slightest effect on the place ; 
and the approach of the Romans to his assistance 
excited no other alarm in the minds of the garrison 
than such as arose from the diminution of their pro¬ 
visions and water, where supplies would be render¬ 
ed unattainable. Vespasian immediately commenced 
his bank, and brought up three battering rams, 
which soon overthrew the wall, and allowed the 
soldiers to enter the city, where a dreadful retribu¬ 
tion waited some yet reeking from the murder of 
their recent victims. The vigorous resistance en¬ 
countered below from the Jews, drove the Romans 
prematurely and in disorder to the upper parts of 
the town, where the narrow, intricate, almost per¬ 
pendicular streets, so completely embarrassed them, 
hemmed in as they were by men fiercely fighting 
in defence of their lives and liberties at the very 
doors of their own homes, that they had no W'ay to 
turn, and they burst into the houses for refuge. 
These, unable to bear the sudden weight of such 
an armed host, gave way ; each dwelling fell on 
some other below it; and the scene, unparalleled, 
perhaps, in history, presented a frightful mass of 
broken walls, great beams of timber, stones, heavy 
furniture, and men imprisoned in their own ponder¬ 
ous armor, falling headlong together in one tre¬ 
mendous crash of utter destruction. Then were 
the Jewish inhabitants to be seen forcing their in¬ 
vaders to leap upon the tottering dwellings, that 
they might give way and bury them, perhaps with 
their own wives and children, for whom they right¬ 
ly deemed that such a fate was happiness compared 


66 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


with its alternative; and what between the mighty 
crash that ground them into powder, the falls that 
broke their limbs, or so entangled as to tear them 
from their bodies, and the dust that killed them by 
instantaneous suffocation, the Romans suffered 
more on the mountain steep of Gamala than they 
had done in all their previous operations. Added 
to these, numbers were put to death by the inhab¬ 
itants as they lay stunned or embarrassed by their 
fall; not only darts but stones, rafters, and all the 
wreck of their own homesteads, furnished w'eapons 
ov destruction to the vengeful garrison; while not 
a few of the warriors, stung by such unwonted de¬ 
feat, stabbed themselves ere an enemy could touch 
them. 

In the midst of this fearful rout, Vespasian found 
himself high up the city, and in most imminent 
danger. The language of Josephus in describing 
his proceeding is most disgraceful to him, a Jew, 
who had just witnessed the butchery and villainy at 
Tiberias. He says that the Roman, “ calling to 
mind the actions that he had done from his youth, 
and recollecting his courage, as if he had been ex¬ 
cited by a divine fury^"^"* made a stand, and ultimately 
escaped. He also records the death of one Ebutius, 
with the high commendation of having in his time 
‘‘ done very great mischief to the Jews.” He re¬ 
cords too the speech of condolence made by Ves¬ 
pasian to his discomfited troops, in which he tells 
them, that “ w^hile they had killed so many ten 
thousands of the Jews, they had now paid their 
small share of the reckoning to Fate.” Encouraged 
by his oration, the diminished host prepared to re¬ 
new their attempts against the former breaches, 


GAMALA TAKEN. 


57 


which were gallantly defended by the little garri¬ 
son ; and some time elapsed before the Romans, by 
a cautious stratagem, and having nearly starved the 
inhabitants, undermined a tower, which eventually 
gave them possession of the city ; yet did they not 
dare to enter it, until careful observation had as¬ 
sured them that no great power of resistance re¬ 
mained. Then Titus, who had been absent on an¬ 
other expedition, got stealthily in with a chosen 
body of horse and foot, and proceeded in the work 
of slaughter: but they were disappointed of more 
than half their recompense ; for they could only 
butcher four thousand men, women, and little babes; 
the latter of whom they dashed down alive from 
the citadel, to break their tender limbs, and prolong 
their dying agonies : five thousand escaped them; 
they stood upon the edges of those rocky preci¬ 
pices, men clasping their wives, and these their 
children ; a furious wind w^as blowing at the time, 
which nearly bore them off their feet, and they had 
no refuo-e but the tender mercies of Rome. Titus 

O ^ 

approached: his blood-hounds w'ere panting for 
their prey—they never grasped it. Down, down 
from that giddy height the hunted children of Israel 
simultaneously cast themselves, and found a general 
tomb in the deeper excavations that were sunk in 
the deep valley below. Two women only were 
left; they concealed themselves till all was over, 
and then found mercy on the strength of near rela¬ 
tionship to a famous general in the army of Agrip- 
pa, the royal slave-merchant. 

Gishala alone remained to be reduced. Here the 
inhabitants, like those of Tarichsea, were desirous 
of peace, being chiefly husbandmen, unused to cpn- 


58 


jud.i:a capta. 


tention; but another party existed, aliens and lawless 
characters under the same John who afterwards per¬ 
formed so conspicuous a part at Jerusalem. Titus 
summoned them to surrender, but John, desirous of 
escaping, pleaded the sacredness of the sabbath, and 
asked a truce from all negotiations till the morrow. 
This Titus granted; and John used the interval to 
accomplish his escape. He prevailed on a number 
of the citizens to accompany him, with a multitude 
of women and children whom he cruelly deserted on 
the road. These, of course, fell into the hands of 
those who went in pursuit : six thousand of the 
helpless creatures were put to death, and half that 
number brought hack, in dreadful captivity, to the 
town. Titus is represented as showing great leni¬ 
ency to the inhabitants, who came out to meet him 
most submissively, casting on John all the blame of 
the deception practised ; and it does not appear 
that any extensive massacre was perpetrated. He 
had a higher prize in immediate prospect: Jerusa¬ 
lem was next to be invested, and the army expressed 
great impatience to march upon the holy city ; but 
Vespasian, hearing from deserters how great were 
the divisions, and how bitter the internal contests 
carried on there, refused to advance, deeming it ex¬ 
pedient to allow those breaches to widen, and the 
mischief to proceed as far as possible, before they 
furnished the Jews with a motive of union by at¬ 
tacking them. There can be no doubt that the wily 
Roman had emissaries in the city, stirring up strife, 
and directing many evil works that appeared to be 
of Jewish origin alone : and Josephus himself, a cap¬ 
tive, but in high favor and confidence, would afford 
many valuable hints for his patron’s guidance. How 


JOSEPHUS’ WRITINGS. 


59 


far Ills patriotism had been subdued, we may gather 
from the complacency with which he details events 
that, even at this distance of time, must pierce with 
anguish the heart of every Jew who peruses the 
tale ; how far his feelings had been paganized, we 
may also discern from the whole tenor of his lam 
guage, which is that of a Roman, not an Israelite. 
The “ divine fury” that he ascribes to Vespasian 
could not, to his view, be as the heaven-born cou¬ 
rage of Gideon or David ; but the legitimate inspi¬ 
ration of Rome’s warlike demon. Mars. Touches 
do appear of natural feeling, but they are very few, 
and very far between ; a glimmer among the 
ashes of what he had labored to extinguish, 
and where scarcely an expiring spark yet lingered. 
This ought to be borne in mind, when admitting 
as unquestionable the accuracy of one who took 
part in the events that he narrates. Every eye-wit¬ 
ness is not a true witness ; neither is the report of a 
faithless deserter, such as bore tidings to the Roman 
camp of what occurred within the walls of Jerusa¬ 
lem, above suspicion. This we know, that they 
were days of vengeance when all came upon the 
country and the people, which the prophets had 
foretold ; and whatsoever is borne out by the word 
of prophecy that we are bound to believe. Beyond 
it, we have no sure data on which to build, save in 
the military operations and public events that were 
known to all men. Josephus certainly did not write 
for the Jews ; but for the Romans he certainly did 
write, and through their favor his work is pre¬ 
served as an invaluable record of what, but for it, 
would rest on a still more questionable foundation, 


60 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


wholly destitute of the local and national features 
that establish its general accuracy beyond dispute. 

The prefatory matter has swelled far beyond our 
purposed limits'; but Jotapata, Tarichsea and Gam- 
ala arrest us by the fearful interest of their melan¬ 
choly details: while the narrative invests with grim 
and glaring life the prophetic beast, “ which was 
diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, 
whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass ; 
which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the 
residue with his feet.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


The fortified places of Judaea being reduced, and 
their gallant defenders slaughtered, or with their 
helpless families carried into slavery, the Roman 
army pressed on their General the desirableness of 
proceeding to Jerusalem ; but Vespasian exhorted 
them to patience, representing that their work was 
being more effectually done by means of civil dis¬ 
sension, commotion, and blood within the city, than 
it could be by their immediate advance. John, who 
had escaped from Gishala, was at the head of a 
lawless party calling themselves zealots, making 
havoc of the more peaceable, and committing dread¬ 
ful acts, not only in Jerusalem, but by occasional 
excursions to neighboring places ; while some alien 
bands who had possession of the citadel of Masada, 
not far from Jerusalem, took advantage of the ab¬ 
sence of the male population at the feast of unleav¬ 
ened bread to fall on the surrounding villages, com¬ 
mitting dreadful barbarities, and carrying off the 
spoil to their fortress ; insomuch that individuals 
frequently made their appearance in the Roman 
camp, inviting Vespasian to advance, and, by com¬ 
pleting at a blow the work of desolation, put an end 
to this slow and torturing process. To this he 
seemed to yield, rather than to the wishes of his 
army ; and set forward on his sanguinary expedi¬ 
tion in the character of a deliverer anxious to ex- 
6 


62 


JUD^^lA. CAPTA. 


tend the protecting wing of the Roman Eagle over 
the whole nation. Gadara, the chief city of 
Persea, surrendered on their approach; the more 
hostile party having taken to flight, on finding that 
no opposition would be offered by the principal 
citizens. Vespasian despatched one of his com¬ 
manders in pursuit of the fugitives, a body of 
whom they soon overtook, and completely sur¬ 
rounded, forming with their mail-clad ranks an un¬ 
broken, impervious wall of iron, against which the 
darts of the Jews were hurled in vain. These 
stood at bay, and fought with desperate courage : 
but escape was impossible ; and there like,—oh, 
how like !—“ a wild bull in a net,” they struggled 
and fell one by one, beneath the practised hands 
of the enemy, who pierced them at will with their 
javelins, or trampled them beneath their horses’ 
hoofs. This took place near a village, into which 
others had previously fought their way through 
parties of the Roman horse, and where they made 
a brave but ineffectual defence. The enemy 
broke in through the slender barriers, where, says 
Josephus, “ the useless multitude were destroy¬ 
ed in other words, the aged, the weak, and the 
helpless Jewish women and babes had their throats 
cut; the houses were plundered, the village was 
burnt; and then the fugitives, augmented by all 
who had strength to flee, were hunted again on the 
road to Jericho, into which they hoped to throw 
themselves, and repulse the Romans. But Pla- 
cidas, the hostile commander, was too rapid for 
them: he drove them to the side of Jordan, then 
swelled by the rains, and overflowing its banks, 
and here, after an unequal battle, he completed the 


THE spoiler’s PROGRESS. 


63 


work by slaying fifteen thousand with the sword, 
selecting twelve hundred for slavery, and compel¬ 
ling the rest to leap into the river, over which 
their fathers passed dry-shod when the ark of the 
LORD rested in mid channel. But He, the God 
of Abraham, was now wroth with His people ; He 
had forsaken his inheritance, and given them over 
as a prey into the hands of a barbarous foe. We 
will here cite the words of that unnatural apostate, 
Josephus, who thus coolly details the nature and 
consequences of this savage massacre, perpetrated 
on his own brethren, the people of Israel, the 
royal tribe of Judah. “ Now this destruction that 
fell upon the Jews, as it was not inferior to any of 
the rest in itself, so did it still appear greater than 
it really was. And this because not only the 
whole country through which they fled was filled 
with slaughter, and Jordan could not be passed 
over by reason of the dead bodies that were in it; 
but because the lake Asphaltites was also full of 
dead bodies that were carried down into it by the 
river. And now Placidas, after this good success 
that he had had, fell violently upon the smaller 
cities and villages ; when he took Abila, and Julias, 
and Bezemoth, and all those that lay as far as the 
lake Asphaltites, and put such of the deserters (i. e. 
traitors) into them as he thought proper. He then 
put his followers on board the ships, and slew such 
as had fled to the lake.” 

After this, Vespasian himself advanced upon Je¬ 
richo, hoping for a fresh supply of blood and spoil; 
but though he laid all waste in the way thither, 
he was disappointed at the last, for every one had 
fled, and Jericho was as desolate as though he had 


64 


JUD-EA CAPTA. 


already swept it with his Roman besom; and now 
he began in earnest to prepare for the great siege. 
He took Gerasac at a blow, slew all the young inen 
who had not escaped, took captive all the families, 
gave their houses to be plundered by his troops, 
then set fire to the place. The whole surrounding 
country being thus completely laid waste, and every 
remaining building garrisoned by his soldiers or 
mercenary allies, the people of Jerusalem had no 
longer the power of making excursions from the 
city walls. The party most opposed to the Roman 
invader carefully watched such as were suspected 
of an intention to desert; and of the other classes 
none, of course, ventured to explore a neighbor¬ 
hood wholly subdued and overrun by the hostile 
army 

It was not, however, reserved for Vespasian to 
conclude in person the fearful achievement hitherto 
so successfully prosecuted. That he longed to add 
this blood-stained trophy to the wreaths which he 
had recently won on the shores of our own Eng¬ 
land, cannot be doubted. It was the Roman fashion 
of those days to affect contempt the most supreme 
for every other people under heaven; and com¬ 
mensurate with the gallantry exhibited by an enemy 
was the eagerness of those barbarous legions to 
subdue him. Strong confidence in their own in¬ 
vincible powers, an assured belief that they could 
not be conquered, upheld them under all reverses, 
and nerved them to such efforts as never failed to 
retrieve a temporary loss ; this urged them on¬ 
ward to finish the protracted campaign, so unex¬ 
pectedly lengthened out by the desperate intrepidi¬ 
ty of a people, who, like themselves, but on far, 


JOSEPHUS PROMOTED. 


65 


far higher grounds, were incapable of realizing the 
fact of being subdued by mortal man. To the im¬ 
portunities of his martial followers, Vespasian, hav¬ 
ing so far forced his way, was now fully disposed 
to accede; but before the needful preparations 
could be made, events took a new turn at Rome, 
the imperial crown itself becoming the property of 
this experienced slaughterer; who, of course, 
found it necessary to proceed with all haste to the 
seat of universal empire. 

The act of sovereignty, recorded by Josephus, is 
one that we must carefully bear in mind. The 
Jewish historian had, as we have seen, been cap¬ 
tured at Jotapata, after heading the garrison of that 
town in a defence as gallant, as protracted, and as 
destructive to the enemy as they had anywhere en¬ 
countered. This, in the eyes of the barbarous 
conquerors, merited a cruel death, or at least per¬ 
petual slavery; but Vespasian and Titus, won 
upon, as Josephus tells us, by his inspired prediction 
of their both attaining to the imperial dignity, spared 
his life ; and not only so, for it is evident that, though 
outwardly in bonds, he accompanied them on their 
march of blood and desolation more on the terms of 
a friend than of a captive. Vespasian now took ad¬ 
vantage of the high good humor into which the 
army was thrown by his acceptance of the imperial 
diadem, and of the glowing loyalty that all were 
eager to manifest to the monarch of their choice. He 
set Josephus before them, rehearsed his gallant 
deeds, his sufferings, and above all, his happy pro¬ 
phecy, now fulfilled by themselves; and appealed 
to them whether it was right that such a man should 
still wear the fetters of a captive. Of course, the 
6 * 


66 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


answer accorded with the emperor’s wish; and 
then Titus, eager to put all possible honor upon 
this extraordinary Jew, suggested that the ceremo¬ 
ny of hacking asunder his bonds should be perform¬ 
ed, which, according to Roman usage, would re¬ 
move the stio;ma of having ever worn them. This 
also was done; and Josephus very complacently 
informs us that he ‘‘ received the testimony of his 
integrity for a reward ; and was moreover esteemed 
a person of credit as to futurities also.” He was 
regarded as a man high in the imperial favor, and 
secure of rising by means of that effectual helping 
hand that kings can give their creatures. 

At this distance of time, with no contemporane¬ 
ous testimony to throw additional light on what he 
has thought proper to reveal, we cannot undertake 
to judge the Jewish historian ; but it is impossible 
to avoid remarking, that had he accompanied Ves 
pasian to Rome, his fame would have worn a bright¬ 
er aspect, his conduct have admitted of a more 
favorable interpretation, than either can bear un¬ 
der the circumstances of his continuing with Titus, 
to aid and abet that heathen and his host in the 
destruction of the Holy City. When to this we 
again add the fact of his having penned his history 
under the eye of this imperial pair, father and son, 
subject to the keen remarks of those who had des¬ 
troyed the Lord’s vineyard, and laid waste His heri¬ 
tage ; when we trace in it, as we cannot fail to do, 
an identification of feeling and interests with those 
whose hands, whose march, the very streets of 
whose haughty city, were still reeking with the 
warm life-blood of Judah, we cannot, we will not 
take the word of this recreant and apostate Jew for 


THE CROWNING SIN. 


67 


any particulars calculated to blacken the darkness 
of Jerusalem in that day of her unprecedented an¬ 
guish. Desolate, in captivity, moving to and fro 
with fettered hands and bleeding feet, and a scourge, 
yea, a sword ever suspended over their lacerated 
shoulders, the Jews could not sit down to pen a 
refutation of what their treacherous brother, clad in 
soft clothing and feasted at Caesar’s table, securely 
recorded against them. Away, then, with his tes¬ 
timony in all that concerns the enormities commit¬ 
ted within the city ; there is no warrant in the 
prophetic scriptures, no evidence in credible his¬ 
tory, no analogy in nature itself, for the atrocities 
that he charges upon his brethren. Rome pa¬ 
gan, no less than Rome papal, needed the forging 
of a considerable number of lying accusations, to 
palliate in some degree the horrors of her own dia¬ 
bolical barbarity against the Jewish people. She 
found a hand, expert and willing in the work of 
calumny ; she made the most of it, and after ages 
have swallowed with unquestioning gullibility the 
whole incredible tale. A clearer light is now 
dawnino; on the world : and while the Lord God 
removes the covering from all nations, and the veil 
that is cast over all people. He also begins to take 
away the reproach of His own peculiar people in 
many particulars where a false reproach has hither¬ 
to rested on the n ; and soon will all reproach, by 
His pardoning mercy and redeeming love, be re¬ 
moved from them for ever. 

Yet the Jews of that day were guilty, exceeding¬ 
ly, fearfully guilty ; or such overwhelming destruc¬ 
tion could not have fallen on them, nor would the 
Lord have delivered the dearly-beloved of His soul, 


68 


JUDJEA CAPTA. 


bound and naked, into the hands of her ferocious 
enemies. What was the crowning sin of the nation 
we very well know : reading by the light of man’s 
instruction the words, the inspired words of their 
own holy prophets, they had overlooked the im 
portant fact of a suffering Saviour dying to redeem, 
and fixed their eyes exclusively on the more distant 
prospect of that glorious Redeemer coming to reign. 
To that portion of Isaiah’s prediction which speaks 
of him as despised and rejected of men, a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with grief, smitten and af¬ 
flicted ; bruised for their sins, wounded for their 
transgressions, scourged that they might be healed ; 
led as sheep to the slaughter, numbered with the 
transgressors, entombed, and by his righteousness 
justifying them; to this they closed their eyes, and 
opened them but to behold him coming from Edom, 
travelling in the greatness of his strength, and in 
the blood of his and their enemies, and crowned a 
glorious King. 

When Daniel forewarned them of a time being 
set “ to finish the transgression, and to make an end 
of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to 
bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the 
vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy,” 
at which time, Messiah should be cut off, but not for 
himself; they refused to ponder the solemn message, 
and fixed their whole heart on the equally sure word 
that the same Messiah’s kingdom should subse¬ 
quently be established in majesty and might on the 
ruins of the long-continued Gentile usurpations. 
When Zechariah declared that for thirty pieces of 
silver the Lord should be bartered among them, and 
that they should look on Him (the context proving 


WRATH TO THE UTTERMOST. 


69 


a divine person) whom they had pierced, and mourn 
for him in the deepest humiliation of contrite sor¬ 
row, they threw it aside as a sealed book, laying 
an eager grasp on the triumphant sequel where 
Israel, restored and re-established in his own land, 
with every ancient privilege confirmed and re¬ 
doubled, should behold the nations of the earth 
coming yearly to Jerusalem to keep with them 
the feast of Tabernacles. In like manner, what 
God hath joined in the Law, the Psalms, and 
the Prophets, an atoning Sacrifice and a reign¬ 
ing Deliverer, a Prophet whom all must hear 
and obey on pain of destruction, a Priest upon 
his throne, theyj alas ! misled by blind guides, put 
asunder, and so filled up the measure of the sins of 
many generations. Then wrath came upon them 
to the uttermost; the beauty was defaced, the glory 
departed, and Judah was cast out for a long, long 
pilgrimage of suffering and sorrow through the wil¬ 
derness of cruel nations, whose iniquitous and im¬ 
pious pleasure it has been to help forward the afflic¬ 
tion ; daring the awful retribution that must follow 
from that unrevoked assurance given to Israel, 
“ He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his 
eye.” 

This has been a long digression, but we would 
fain place the matter in its true light. For many 
generations, and in many ways, Israel had provok¬ 
ed the Lord ; and the fact of their ultimately 
bringing on themselves a dispersion so long, and 
sufferings so bitter, as we know" them to have un¬ 
dergone during the last eighteen centuries, was dis¬ 
tinctly revealed to, and with terrible exactness set 
forth by Moses, in the books of Leviticus and Deu- 


70 


JUD-EA CAPTA. 


teronomy. This event at last took place, under 
the circumstances now referred to, and the me¬ 
naced bolt fell. Josephus, evidently a man of 
most carnal mind and darkened understanding, takes 
upon himself to exalt the national grandeur and 
prowess of the Jews, in order to exalt still higher 
the glory of those who conquered them ; he ob¬ 
tained from the heathen spoilers the loan of the sa¬ 
cred books, the rolls that had been rent from the 
temple of Jerusalem, and from them, as from com¬ 
mon records, he compiled a history of former 
times. Had he been worthy of the name of Jew, 
he would have buried those holy books deep in the 
earth, and shed his life-blood in vindication of the 
deed that rescued them from foul profanation; but 
such he was not; and we only note the circum¬ 
stance as a proof of the extinction of all natural 
feeling in his breast; and as a landmark whereby 
to steer through his exaggerated descriptions of 
what he certainly did not himself see, nor could he 
know it but from the report of spies, deserters, and 
other traitors continually coming from the besieged 
walls. 

That fearful scenfes were enacted there no one 
can doubt: that the city was divided, rent into 
factions, and every division wrought up to madness 
by the secret operation of suborned emissaries from 
the enemy’s camp, or hired agents whose instruc¬ 
tions were thence derived, is obvious. In any 
population the same means would produce similar 
effects ; and assuredly we must admit the awful 
fact that the Lord, their own Almighty King, ‘‘ was 
turned to be their enemy, and fought against 


DIVINE THREATENINGS. 


71 


them,”* that because thej'- had walked contrary 
to Him, He at length I'ullilied the threat, “ I 
will walk contrary to you also in fur}’’, and I, even 
I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 
And I will make your cities waste and bring 
your sanctuaries into desolation ; and I will 
not smell the savor of your sweet odors. And 
I will bring the land into desolation : and 
your enemies which dwell therein shall be as¬ 
tonished at it. And I will scatter you among the 
heathen, and will draw out a sword after you ; and 
your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.’’"j" 
The fulfilment of this fruitful prediction to the very 
letter, must prepare the mind to receive an impres¬ 
sion fully commensurate with the prophetic lament, 
that “ under the whole heaven hath not been done 
as hath been done upon Jerusalem.” 

So far, we may, each for himself, picture the 
mournful, the dreadful state of the devoted city, 
divested of the guardian shield that had so long 
hung over it. The angel of the Lord encamped 
no more about her palaces, but left them to be the 
spoiler’s prey. The Temple, that spot most holy 
upon earth’s wide surface, in the eyes of a Jew, 
w^as no longer owned by Him who had vouchsafed 
to dwell therein ; and in a furious contest of rival 
parties, Zach'^rius, the son of Barachius, a man of 
peace, and of the consecrated order, was slain be¬ 
tween the temple and the altar,—a signal that the 
righteous blood shed from the beginning thitherto 
was about to come upon that generation-;|; Jerusa¬ 
lem could not have fallen, unless the great majority 


• Isaiah Ixiii. 10. t Levit. xxvi. 9. J Matt, xxiii. 35. 


72 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


of her inhabitants had forsaken and provoked the 
Lord to the uttermost; because, for his own name’s 
sake, and for his servant David’s sake, did the Lord 
defend that city from of old. Far be it from us, 
while rejecting the malicious details of Josephus, to 
question the extent of prevailing iniquity there ! It 
would be to question the truth of the Most High, to 
arraign his justice, and to rebel against his power. 
The language of the Jews, in their synagogues all 
over the world, on the return of that sorrowful an¬ 
niversary, and indeed in all their services, would 
keenly reprove us ; for words cannot express a 
greater depth of contrite humiliation than they are 
accustomed to declare, on the subject of national 
provocation. Terrible in his long-delayed ven¬ 
geance, still the God of Israel was just; and even 
in the fierceness of his wrath. He remembered 
mercy. He forgot not the covenants made with 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; but stayed the rough 
wind in the day of his east wind, or what soul 
would have escaped the sanguinary murderers 
without, and their unprincipled tools within the 
devoted city ? How would Judah have survived, 
and continued, and multiplied, and spread abroad 
to the east and to the west, to the north and to the 
south, and retained within himself all the elements 
of a returning greatness and glory, as it is at this 
day.? We proceed to the scene of desolation, ac¬ 
companying Titus and his homicidal band : and 
with them desiring, “ Let our eye look upon Zion,” 
but oh ! with what a different sentiment to theirs ! 
Yes, we must go over the heart-rending details of 
her cruel wreck ; but sweetly prominent to our eye 
is still the assured pledge. 


DIVINE PROMISES 


73 


Again I will build thee, 

And thou shalt be built, O Virgin of Israel; 

Thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, 

And shalt go forth in the dance of them that make merry. 

Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria • 

The planters shall plant, and shall eat them as co m in on things 
For there shall be a day, 

That the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim shall cry, 

Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion, 

Unto the Lord our God. 

For thus saith the Lord; 

Sing with gladness for Jacob, 

And shout among the chief of the nations; 

Publish ye, praise ye, and say, 

O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. 

Behold, I will bring them from the north country. 

And gather them from the coasts of the earth, 

And with them the blind and the lame, 

The woman with child, and her that travaileth with child together. 

A great company shall return thither. 

They shall come with weeping. 

And with supplications will I lead them; 

I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters 
In a straight way, wherein they shall not stmnble 
For I am a father unto Israel, 

And Ephraim is my first born. 

Hear the w'ord of the Lord, O ye nations, 

And declare it in the isles afar off, and say. 

He that scattered Israel will gather his own. 

And keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. 

For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, 

And ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. 
Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, 

And shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, 

For wheat, and for wine, and for oil. 

And for the young of the flock and of the herd; 

And their soul shall be as a watered garden; 

And they shall not sorrow any more at all. 

Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, 

Both young men and old together: 

For I will turn their mourning into joy. 

And will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow 
And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness. 

And my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord 

Jeremiah xxxi. 4 . 


7 


CHAPTER VII. 


From Alexandria, whence Vespasian set forth for 
Rome, Titus also departed to lay siege to Jerusa¬ 
lem. His route possesses a solemn and melancholy 
interest; he halted at Zoar, where God of old did 
marvellous things for Israel against their first op¬ 
pressors. Having crossed the Nile, he proceeded 
over the desert; he entered Syria at Raphin, mak¬ 
ing Gaza his next station. Ascalon, Jamnia, and 
Joppa, in turn afforded a resting-place to the Ro¬ 
man destroyer ; and lastly, he came to Cesarea, the 
chosen rendezvous of all his forces ; the point of 
concentration, from which the collected torrent 
was to meet and overflow the deserted vineyard of 
the Lord of Hosts. 

The order of their march into what Josephus is 
not ashamed to call “ the enemy'*s country,” was as 
follows first went the auxiliary forces, furnished 
by surrounding-kings, among whom Agrippa, their 
former ally, mediator, and champion, supplied a por¬ 
tion ; and with these were a mixed multitude, also 
calling themselves auxiliaries, drawn to the Roman 
standard by a greedy hope of sharing the spoil of 
Zion. The pioneers and artificers of encampments 
followed, and after them the commander’s baggage, 
with its wonted guard. Then Titus, with his pick¬ 
ed supporters; the pikemen; the cavalry of the 
chosen legion; and next the fatal engines; the 


THE MARCH INTO JUDJEA. 


75 


tribunes, leaders of cohorts, and their select bodies. 
The trumpeters next preceded the ensigns—the 
ravening eagle, the abomination of desolation that 
should pollute the holy place. The main body, 
in ranks six deep, followed their standards ; then 
came the servants and the general baggage of the 
army ; and last the mercenaries, with their ap¬ 
pointed guards, who brought up the rear. Through 
Samaria they proceeded to Gophna, the desolate 
wreck of a city already sacked by Vespasian ; and 
here they lay for the night. The next day’s 
march brought them within thirty furlongs of Jeru¬ 
salem ; where, in a place called the Valley of 
Thorns, another temporary encampment was order¬ 
ed, with the expectation that the next would be a 
permanent lodgment under the walls which the 
proud Assyrian menaced in vain. Meantime 
Titus, assembling six hundred of his chosen horse¬ 
men, proceeded to reconnoitre the city ; curious to 
ascertain both the extent and strength of its de¬ 
fences, and the temper of its inhabitants ; whether 
they were made of like metal with their brethren 
of Jotapata, Gamala, and the other fortified towns, 
eager to give battle and nerved to a desperate re¬ 
sistance ; or whether they were so exhausted by 
internal dissensions, or so intimidated by the near 
approach of his immense army, as to exhibit 
tokens of a speedy submission. His doubts were 
quickly set at rest. 

It was on the north-western side of the city, that 
all assailants, from David to the Roman general, 
had fixed their camps, that being, indeed, the only 
accessible point. Titus had approached in that di¬ 
rection, having before him the most modern suburb, 


76 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


Bezetha, which had grown up gradually from the 
increase of population, and possessed none of the 
natural defences enjoyed by the other parts of the 
city: but on this account greater pains had been 
taken to strengthen the walls, incomplete as had 
been left the execution of Agrippa’s perfect design. 
There was a strong tower, called Psephinos, flank¬ 
ing the westward wall, at an angle nearly parallel 
to where now stands the Damascus gate, and due 
west of it: near to this point, Titus, with his 
horsemen, had been allowed to advance, on the 
road leading to the city, without the appearance of 
an individual to intercept or oppose him; but 
when, encouraged no doubt by such apparent pas¬ 
siveness, he altered his course, and swerved ob¬ 
liquely towards Psephinos, followed by his band, 
a sudden and most impetuous sally took place, 
not from any gate, but through the windows of 
some neighboring towers, out of which multitudes 
of armed Jews suddenly leaped, casting themselves 
in the path of the horsemen, so that those who 
had not yet declined from the main road, were 
intercepted from following those W'ho had ; 
while Titus, with only a few attendants, was in 
like manner cut off from the rest, and placed 
in great peril, the nature of the ground much en¬ 
hancing it. Trenches had been dug as a sort of 
sunk fence, to protect the gardens, which in this 
quarter extended from the walls to some distance ; 
those deep trenches ran out obliquely, intermingled 
with strong hedges, together forming a barrier that 
forbad his further advance ; return to his men 
seemed impossible, for a dense body of exasperated 
enemies intervened ; and the Romans, unconscious 


TITUS ASSAILED. 


77 


that their commander was thus separated from 
them, remained in expectation of some order from 
his lips. Titus, moreover, was not armed as for 
battle ; so Josephus says, who declares that he had 
on neither head-piece nor breast-plate; which, if 
true, speaks little for his military tact and foresight, 
considering the nature of his expedition and his 
avowed uncertainty as to the hostile purposes of 
the besieged. The Romanized historian, of course, 
gives the greater credit to his patron, for the in¬ 
trepidity with which he extricated himself from 
this alarming dilemma, referring also to the provi¬ 
dential care of God over*the persons of kings. He 
represents the general as cutting his way through 
his assailants, parrying, with his sword alone, the 
darts that were showered on him from every side ; 
cutting down some, riding over others, and finally 
escaping with his horsemen, two only of whom 
were slain in the combat. This encounter encou¬ 
raged both parties ; the one being elated by having 
so decidedly put the Roman prince to flight, the 
other by his having so well escaped a very immi¬ 
nent danger ; which was of course interpreted as a 
happy omen. 

Titus, being further reinforced by a legion from 
Emmaus, advanced on the following day, with his 
assembled host, to the hill, or rather the gently 
swelling plain, called Scopus, seven furlongs only 
distant from the holy city. Here they proceeded, 
with the usual grim deliberation, to measure out 
the ground, to form their squares and streets, and 
to build rather than to pitch their substantial tents ; 
planting in the midst the ominous ensign of their 
sanguinary sway. Before them, and clearly seen 
7* 


78 


JUD-EA CAPTA. 


above the walls that intervened between the nume¬ 
rous towns, rose the magnificent Tern[de, sheathed, 
as it were, in burnished gold, continually provoking 
that lust of plunder which formed the main-spring 
of Roman enterprise. But between them and this 
splendid prize rose the formidable bulwark of An¬ 
tonia, guarding with its massive strength the north¬ 
west angle of the outer court, whence the wall that 
enclosed Acra branched forth, presenting a close 
array of towers bristling with spears and darts, and 
alive with countenances on which, among many 
deep emotions, one universal characteristic was 
traceable—the stern resolve to die, if needful, amid 
the ruins of their city, but never, never to surrender 
it into the hands of a pagan foe. On Scopus two 
legions were encamped; another was stationed 
somewhat further in the-rear, that they might fortify 
themselves in greater security, and move at leisure 
under cover of the near camp. A third body, the 
tenth Roman legion, were directed to form their 
encampment six furlongs from Jerusalem, on the 
descent of the Mount of Olives. 

And now behold the city indeed hemmed in by 
her enemies, encompassed with armies. Josephus, 
whom we are constrained to quote, says that w^hen 
“ the seditious” saw these several Roman camps 
suddenly pitched around them, “ they began to 
think of an awkward sort of concord,” and decidect 
on an immediate sally. With them, to resolve was 
to do. The Romans were scattered about in small 
parties, methodically pursuing their famous camp 
architecture, taking it for granted that no one would 
attempt so premature an interruption of the goodly 
work, and persuaded, moreover, that the Jews, be- 


THE TENTH LEGION ROUTED. 


79 


sides the intimidation that their advance must 
strike into them, were too completely disunited, too 
hotly engaged in civil warfare, to plan any offen¬ 
sive operation. Suddenly, however, a tremendous 
gush, a torrent of armed men, was seen sweeping 
down the declivity from the city wall, and with a 
tremendous shout ascending the opposite hill, they 
threw themselves upon the astonished Romans, 
who, half armed, and wholly unprepared, sought 
safety in flight; some retreating at their utmost 
speed from the spot, others flying to the place 
where their w'eapons were deposited, but both hot¬ 
ly pursued. Few of the latter lived to gird those 
weapons on ; and of the former, on ground so new 
to them, so perfectly familiar to their assailants, 
great numbers fell beneath the fiery tread of their 
pursuers. When the Romans rallied, and formed 
a front, they were presently thrown into confusion 
by the irregular onset of the Jews, who, neither 
knowing nor caring aught about the disciplined 
regularity of warfare to which the others were ac¬ 
customed, fell upon them as did Samuel their 
prophet upon Agag, intent only to hew them in 
pieces. Encouraged and inflamed by the specta¬ 
cle of their brethren’s success, the Jews continued 
to pour forth in great numbers, principally at the 
point where the valleys of the Kidron and of Hin- 
nom meet at the south-eastern point of the city, the 
foot of Ophel; and, after several ineffectual at¬ 
tempts to stem the torrent and to turn the battle, 
the Romans were put to shameful flight, abandon¬ 
ing their camp, and being themselves in manifest 
danger of extermination. Tidings had, however, 
been brought to Titus of the jeopardy in which the 


80 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


tenth legion were placed, and he immediately ad¬ 
vanced with efficient reinforcements, rallied the fu¬ 
gitives, reproached them with cowardice, and made 
a fierce attack upon the Jews with the fresh troops 
—horsemen, no doubt—that he had brought up to 
the rescue. Having turned their flank, he pursued 
his advantage, compelling them to retreat towards 
the valley, in which they suffered great loss from 
the enemy in their ponderous armor crushing 
down upon them from the steep; but the re¬ 
mainder having gained once more the opposite 
ascent, turned upon the pursuers, and under 
their beloved walls sustained for hours a battle 
with the Romans, who showered darts and lan¬ 
ces upon them from the opposite bank. Titus, 
seeing that nothing was to be gained, stationed his 
fresh cohort to watch against any future sally from 
that point, and ordered the routed legion to a higher 
part of the mountain, there to pitch and to fortify 
their camp. 

But vain were the general’s precautions, and 
equally vain his hope of overawing the children of 
Israel. No sooner were the soldiers seen, as in full 
retreat up the mountain, than a Jewish watchman, 
stationed on the wall, exultingly shook his gar¬ 
ment, and upon that signal out rushed a fresh mul¬ 
titude of the besieged, with such mighty violence, 
says Josephus, “ that one might compare it to the 
running of the most terrible wfild beasts.” Such 
were not the comparisons chosen of old to describe 
the irresistible powers of Judah, when “kings with 
their armies did flee” before him ; but Josephus, 
as a pagan, wrote for pagans, so let his language 
go for what it is worth in the sight of his new mas- 


EXPLOITS OF THE JEWS. 


81 


ters. He proceeds, ‘‘To say the truth, none of 
those that opposed them could sustain the fury of 
their attacks ; but, as if they were ^ cast out of an 
engine^ they brake the enemies'^ rank to pieces^ who 
were put to flight, and ran away to the mountain.” 
And who were these runaways } Even the dough¬ 
tiest w^arriors, the picked cohort of an invincible 
Roman army ! Titus had just before selected 
them from the flower of his host, to rescue the 
routed legion : and having done this, he had posted 
them on the edge of the valley to prevent any fur¬ 
ther egress from the walls. However, the Jews 
broke out, and they “ran away up the mountain 
Titus himself, whose personal courage was unques¬ 
tionable, with a few of his immediate attendants, 
being left alone half way up the steep, and finding 
it no easy matter to resist the importunities of his 
friends, who urged him also to flee. It appears 
that he nevertheless made a gallant stand, and not 
only maintained, but improved his position. The 
hand of God v/as certainly over him ; for he, like 
Pharaoh of old, was ordained unconsciously to ful¬ 
fil the decrees of the Most High, and the work al¬ 
lotted to him he must accomplish. The utmost 
confusion prevailed among the routed legion ; they 
concluded that Titus also had saved himself by 
flight, and nothing could be more complete than 
their disgraceful dispersion, when, peeping from 
the brow^ of the hill, where the thick olives afford¬ 
ed them some shelter, they descried their general 
engaged, almost single-handed, in desperate combat 
with the victorious Jews. This roused them at 
once ; and loudly proclaiming to their scattered 
comrades the commander’s peril, all rushed down 


82 


JUDJSA CAPTA. 


to rescue him, reproaching and urging one another 
on, until the force of such a combined onset from 
many different points of higher ground, overpower¬ 
ed the Jews, turned them, and drove them into the 
depth of the valley, after a most determined resist¬ 
ance ; for they faced about again, and fought their 
way, evidently in good order, until they gained once 
more the bulwarks of their city. 

Josephus has no word of commendation to hestow 
upon the courageous Jews; but the praise that he 
gives his patron implies no slight testimony to their 
prowess and exploits. After stating that Titus, hav¬ 
ing made all as safe as he could, sent the legion 
again to fortify their camp, he thus concludes the 
chapter: “ Insomuch, that if I may he allowed nei¬ 
ther to add anything out of flattery, nor to diminish 
anything out of envy, hut to speak the plain truth, 
Csesar did twice deliver that entire legion when it 
was in jeopardy, and gave them a quiet opportunity 
of fortifying their camp.” Titus has had his eulo¬ 
gists, and Josephus his followers, in every age ; but 
we question whether, during eighteen centuries, one 
hand has been found to seize the historic pen with 
a simple purpose of doing impartial justice to the 
calumniated Jews. 

The principal camp, as it has been stated, was 
pitched on Scopus, a fine, expansive, slightly-ele¬ 
vated ground, northward of the holy city. Titus 
now resolved to approach still nearer to the walls, 
and with that view he commenced operations, suf¬ 
ficiently disheartening to those within. He first 
caused every irregularity of ground between the 
present site of his camp and Bezetha to be levelled, 
paring down the little eminences, and making all 


JEWISH stratagem. 


83 


perfectly flat. In this work the whole army was en¬ 
gaged, with the exception of a picked and powerful 
body, whom he stationed to watch against and to 
oppose any attempted sally. Now were all the little 
gardens, so carefully cherished by their owners, 
whose inheritance they were, even as was the vine¬ 
yard of Naboth his own, dug up and utterly destroy¬ 
ed. Every landmark was removed, every hedge 
mown down,every trench filled; and where groves 
of odoriferous trees had spread a cooling shade, 
where branches had bent under their loads of ripen¬ 
ing fruit, the orange, the vine, the pomegranate, and 
the fig, where flowers of surpassing beauty had 
brightened the green sod, and fountains played for 
the refreshment of each lovely scene, nothing now 
remained but a naked, uptorn plain, a dreary level 
trampled into stone by the ceaseless tread of armed 
men. Even the rocky projections and acclivities 
that diversified the beauteous landscape were de¬ 
molished with iron instruments, and their fragments 
used to fill the chasms of a rent soil or carried be¬ 
yond the boundaries. This piteous work of deso¬ 
lation is briefly described by Josephus, without one 
touch of natural feeling such as one must suppose 
could not but wring the bosom of the most callous 
Jew. This took place during the days of unleav¬ 
ened bread, when some new dissensions appear to 
have broken out ifi the city, and rendered the Tem¬ 
ple once more a scene of strife, which ended in 
the reduction of three contending parties into two : 
but, howsoever engaged among themselves, the 
Jews found time to concert a stratagem against 
the besiegers. 

A certain number of courageous men suddenly left 


84 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


the city, as though they had been forcibly thrust 
out by their companions, and stole about the neigh¬ 
borhood, with every appearance of being in great 
fear, lest they should fall into the hands of the Ro¬ 
mans ; and also of distrusting one another. At the 
same time those who were supposed to have ejected 
them, stood forward on the walls, loudly crying for 
peace, and claiming protection with security for their 
lives, on which condition they offered to open their 
gates to the enemy. In farther confirmation of this, 
they threw stones at such of the seemingly expelled 
party as were wandering beneath the walls ; who in 
return petitioned to be taken back, and exhibited 
such extraordinary disorder of feeling, and uncer¬ 
tainty of purpose, as completely to deceive the Ro¬ 
mans, though Josephus says that Titus suspected a 
stratagem; because when he had, by means of Jo¬ 
sephus himself, endeavored on the preceding day 
to persuade them to capitulate, he, or gather per¬ 
haps his agent, could not even obtain a civil answer. 
Probably the recollection of Jotapata, combined with 
its intrepid defender’s present state of defection from 
the cause of Israel, rendered his mission more odious 
to the Jews than they could endure to contemplate, 
or even to repel with a semblance of courtesy. 
Titus, accordingly, commanded the soldiers to stay 
where they were ; but they, eager for plunder, dis¬ 
regarded him, and many of them ran towards the 
gates, expecting them to be thrown open. The ex¬ 
cluded party also hastily retired. Two towers flank¬ 
ed the gate, projecting considerably outwards ; and 
when the credulous Romans had become wedged 
between these towers, the Jews at once ran out, sur¬ 
rounded and attacked them in the rear, while darts 


THE CITY CLOSELY INVESTED. 


85 


and missiles of every kind assailed them from above. 
Many of the soldiers were slain in this way, and 
such as escaped were pursued by the Jews to the 
farthest limit to which they could follow them with¬ 
out falling in with the main army. Thus expatiates 
the worthy Josephus : “ After this, these Jews grew 
insolent upon their good fortune and then he gives 
a speech of Titus, addressed to the offending troops, 
which is strangely at variance with his own account 
of the disunion, mutual hatred, violence, and self¬ 
slaughtering infatuation that reigned among his bre¬ 
thren within the holy city. Titus said, “ These 
Jews, which are only conducted by their madness, 
do everything with care and circumspection : they 
contrive stratagems, and lay ambushes ; and fortune 
gives success to their stratagems, because they are 
obedient^ and preserve their good-will and fidelity one 
to another."'"' He then menaced with death the of¬ 
fenders who had, by acting so unlike the cautious, 
obedient, and united Jews, brought this loss and dis¬ 
grace on the Roman army. However, their com¬ 
rades all interceded for them, and they were par¬ 
doned ; and the general set himself to prosecute the 
war. Four days had sufficed to obliterate every 
trace of cultivation, and to transform the diversified 
suburb into a monotonous level on the north, north¬ 
west, and partly on the western side of the city; and 
now he advanced his force closer to the walls, accu¬ 
mulating its greatest strength on the north; while 
on the west he placed’ his foot soldiers, seven deep, 
with three ranks of horsemen behind them; the 
archers also, seven in depth, occupying the interme¬ 
diate space. So formidable an array precluded the 
possibilitv of further sallies from Jews in that quar- 
8 


86 


JUDAA CAPTA. 


ter : and under its cover, the beasts, the luggage, 
and the mercenary, disorganized multitude of fol¬ 
lowers, were enabled to take up the ground assign^- 
ed to them. Titus himself was stationed over 
against Psephinos ; the second division had its head¬ 
quarters near Hippicus ; and the tenth legion had 
completed their fortifications on the Mount of 
Olives. 

Alas for the city of David ! for the holy place of 
the Tabernacle of the Most High ! The heart of 
a Gentile fails, and her hand trembles while pursu¬ 
ing the mournful tale. Already we behold the 
deadly snare drawn close and strong round the vic¬ 
tim : Jerusalem is a besieged city, a lodge in a 
garden of cucumbers. Her sons are as a wild bull 
in a net, foaming in vain within its entangling 
meshes: her daughters lament for the past, shrink 
for the present, and see no refuge, no escape from 
the terrible future. Can this be Zion, ‘‘ beautiful 
for situation, the joy of the whole earth Is this 
the place of which the Eternal said, ‘‘ Here will I 
dwell,for I have delighted therein Yes, blessed 
for ever be his holy name ! there He dwelt, and 
there He will dwell again, in a glory and a majesty 
that shall lighten the whole earth ; there will He 
yet beautify his sanctuary, and make the place of 
his feet glorious. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


In following the operations of the besieging army, 
it may be necessary again to advert to the position 
of the three walls that formed the bulwarks of the 
Holy City. The first, or old wall, was strong¬ 
est, having been traced out by David, after whom 
Solomon and all the kings of Judah successively 
labored to strengthen it. Commencing at the south¬ 
western corner of the Temple’s outer court, it sepa¬ 
rated Zion from Acra by a line nearly straight, 
crossing the interior from east to west with a slight 
northward curve, and comprising within this space 
the strong towers of Mariamne, Pharsalus, and Hip- 
picus. Thence it swept southward round the whole 
hill of Zion, around the ridge of the valley of Hin- 
uom, turned at the corner of Ophel, and terminated 
at the south-western angle of the Temple walls. 
This was, to all appearance, so impregnable a bar¬ 
rier, that the confidence of the Jews in it was un¬ 
bounded. The stones were of enormous size; some 
of the lower portion of the tower of Hippicus now 
remaining, and which there is every reason to be¬ 
lieve formed a part of the original fort built by 
Herod, measure externally from nine to twelve feet 
each. The tower itself is square, seventy feet by 
fifty-six, and this too is a piece of solid masonry, 
no vacuity being discoverable as far as these great 
stones extend j which confirms the assertion of 


88 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


Josephus, that it was solid stonework to the height 
of thirty cubits, over which was a reservoir of 
water, then two stories of apartments, with battle¬ 
ments and turrets. Of the other two forts nothing 
now remains, save the mass of ruins that assist to 
block up the pass below, and to reduce almost to a 
level the surface of the city, “ builded upon her 
own heap”—upon the crumbled wrecks of her an¬ 
cient strength and magnificence. 

The old, or first wall, having terminated at the 
south-eastern angle of the boundary that enclosed 
the Temple, the third, or Agrippa’s, commenced to 
the northward of it, thus forming a continuous bar¬ 
rier along the steep acclivity that overlooked the 
vaJley of the Kedron ; and then enclosing Bezetha 
as the other encircled Zion, it formed a jutting an¬ 
gle at the north-west points of the city at the tower 
of Psephinos, where Titus had been so roughly as¬ 
sailed, whence it took its course back to Hippicus. 
The second, it will be remembered, was an internal 
barrier, extending from an ancient gate, the site of 
which is now unknown, but not far from Hippicus, 
and terminatino- at Fort Antonia, the great citadel 
of Jerusalem. 

The main strength of the city walls was in their 
towers, each of which, in addition to their immense 
solidity below, furnished accommodation to a large 
defensive body above, supplying them also with 
water, and being each separately defensible. Of 
such warlike towers, the old wall had sixty, the 
second had forty, and Agrippa’s, or the third wall, 
had ninety. The beauty of these bulwarks was no 
less remarkable than their size and strength. They 
were built of white stone hewn from the rock in 


THE CITY BUILDINGS. 


89 


blocks of enormous size, and so exactly fitted one 
upon another as to present the appearance rather of 
an unbroken mass of marble than that of ordinary 
architecture. They rose to a great height above 
the walls, and these again being built, on three 
sides, upon the edge of a deep precipice, looked still 
loftier than they really were. 

The king’s palace, and other buildings, Josephus 
describes in such terms as to stagger the credulity 
of modern readers : they can unhesitatingly receive, 
and complacently swallow his most exaggerated 
statements of impossible enormities committed by 
the inhabitants against each other ; but when he 
comes to set forth the grandeer and beauty of Jeru¬ 
salem itself, with which both he and those for whom 
he wrote were intimately acquainted, men become 
cautious, they examine and reject his testimony 
We will not reverse, though we depart from the re¬ 
ceived plan : we will not perpetuate the latter while 
discarding the former branch of his statements. 
Enough for us that all the ancient glory of Jerusalem 
shall wax dim and be forgotten before the surpass¬ 
ing magnificence of her latter day brightness ; 
enough that her sons, scattered and peeled, meted 
out, trodden down, oppressed and maligned as 
even yet they are, shall soon repossess their city, 
repeople their laud ; for shame have double, and 
for confusion rejoice in their glorious portion. 

We must now, so far as is needful for the cor¬ 
rect understanding of the heart-rending sequel, 
enter upon a description of the Temple. We shall 
follow Josephus, because, recreant as he was, we 
think he dared not have falsified on that subject. 
He could have no motives so to do ; and the 


90 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


familiar acquaintance of his Roman contemporaries 
with the spot must have served in some measure 
as a check on him. Recent discoveries have 
verified several of his most suspected statements, 
as to the size of the stones, the beauty of the 
masonry, and the exquisite character of the work¬ 
manship employed in various architectural depart¬ 
ments. Some excavations, undertaken for a dif¬ 
ferent purpose, have brought to light these things, 
buried beneath the desolations of many genera¬ 
tions ; and the time is not far distant when the 
labors of Jewish restorers will make manifest the 
extent of that wreck committed by Gentile de¬ 
stroyers. 

Mount Moriah, the mountain of the Lord’s 
house,” was originally not only a steep but a 
very uneven hill, too narrow and too irregular 
on its summit for the extent of ground subse¬ 
quently occupied by the Temple and its conse¬ 
crated boundaries. To the south it descended 
with an abrupt sweep, running parallel with the 
southern slope of Zion ; but eastward the rock 
was precipitous, forming a deep ravine, the bed of 
the river Kedron. Great labor was expended in 
raising embankments, filling up the narrow valley 
to the west, and extending into a plain the limited 
area; northward, the natural difficulties do not 
appear to have been great. An extraordinary 
fact has been ascertained within the past few 
years, namely, that the holiest part of the Temple 
occupied a small natural elevation on the unhewn 
rock, which at this moment exists, an object of 
mysterious veneration, in the innermost recesses of 
the mosque of Omar. Had a circumstance like 


THE TEMPLE COURTS. 


91 


this been stated in any ancient, uninspired author, 
and could it now have been cited in the face of 
such alterations and transformations as the hands 
of nominal Christianity would have wrought on 
that consecrated spot, we should have been taught 
to laugh at the improbable fiction; but until the 
Caliph Omar made choice of that site for his 
mosque, the impious rage of a debased sect of 
nominal Christians against everything pertaining 
to the religion of Moses prevailed to heap the 
area of the Temple with the filth of their habi¬ 
tations and of the whole city. Thus concealed 
during the first epoch by the profane indignities 
of one superstition (the Greek), and jealously 
guarded throughout another by the mistaken piety 
of an antagonist superstition (the Moslem), we 
find the ground, the very ground as it once up¬ 
bore the house where the presence of the Most 
High vouchsafed to dwell in visible glory, and 
subsequently to walk and to teach in the like¬ 
ness of sinful flesh, that ground in its original 
state remains for the seed of Jacob to identify, 
and to consecrate anew, in a more acceptable 
form than they were of old, to the Lord of hosts, 
the Eternal, their King. 

Of those great buildings that were wrecked by 
the ruthless spoiler, not leaving one stone upon an¬ 
other that was not cast down, we are told that, in 
the first place, great and strong walls were built 
upwards on the sides of the hill, forming, at their 
summits, a square platform perfectly level, which 
was enclosed by adding to the lower w^alls a range 
of cloisters, that surrounded the outer court, com¬ 
municating at one angle w'ith Fort Antonia. This 


92 


JUDJEA CAPTA 


court was paved with a variety of stones ; and be¬ 
yond it, enclosed by a second partition of peculiarly 
elegant workmanship, but only three cubits in height, 
surmounted by pillars, and ascended to by fourteen 
steps, was the court of the sanctuary, into which 
no Gentile might enter. On the eastern side of the 
second quadrangle was the women’s court, where 
the daughters of Zion assembled to worship ; and 
here also stood another range of buildings, the na¬ 
tural height of which was not easily discernible 
from without. Four gates on the north, four on 
the south, and two on the east side, led to this 
court; the western wall was unbroken. Of these 
gates, nine were overlaid with silver and gold ; but 
the tenth, which opened eastward, was far more 
magnificent, being of Corinthian brass, of consid¬ 
erably larger proportions than the rest, adorned 
with double splendor, having the precious metals 
more profusely spread upon them, and with more 
elaborate ornament. These gateways were of such 
depths as to resemble towers, admitting of a room 
on either side within, between the outer and the 
inner door. Some idea may be formed of the gran¬ 
deur of these approaches, when it is stated, that 
each door was in height thirt}’^ cubits, and its breadth 
fifteen ; while the pillars that supported the cham¬ 
bers within the gateway were twelve cubits in cir¬ 
cumference. The doors of the eastern, or “ Beau¬ 
tiful gate,” which stood over against the entrance 
of the Temple itself, were forty cubits high ; but 
the principal feature of the whole pile of sacred 
edifices was the snowy whiteness of the polished 
stones that formed' it; their enormous size, and 
the unbroken surface presented to the eye by 


THE TEMPLE. 


93 


means of such exquisite fitting of one to another as 
scarcely allowed any junction to be perceptible. 
Accustomed as they were to worship on that spot, 
and familiarized with the mao:nificence that then 
surmounted them, the disciples could not refrain 
from exclaiming, Master, see what manner of 
stones, and what buildings are here !” 

The court of the Gentiles, and of the women, and 
that of the men also, being passed, another ascent 
led to the level of the Temple itself, the particulars 
of which we do not attempt to describe, beyond 
what were visible to the Roman host, whose eyes 
must almost have failed with gazing on it, while 
they computed the value of spoils, such as had never 
before invited their rapacious grasp. The tenth 
legion, encamped on the Mount of Olives, could 
look down into its beauteous recesses, when the 
morning sun-beam rested on those stately pillars, 
and threw into the richest relief the massive foliage 
of vine-leaves, grapes, pomegranates, and other ex¬ 
quisite tracery that hung upon the snowy structure 
in masses of solid gold. Opening, as it did, to the 
east, and closed from view only in the holiest place, 
which the high-priest alone, once in the year, might 
enter, while a costly veil, profusely embroidered in 
blue, scarlet, and purple, hung before the entrance 
of the sanctuary, revealing, when withdrawn, the 
altar of incense, the golden table of shew-bread, and 
the seven-branched candlestick ; all but the most 
distant and mysterious recess (the spot where for¬ 
merly rested the visible glory of the Eternal), was 
frequently laid open, like a dream of imaginary mag¬ 
nificence, to the astonished view of those who hov¬ 
ered on the opposite heights: the altar of burnt- 


94 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


offering standing in the open air, surrounded by the 
priests, while all Israel worshipped beyond the light 
and elegant frame-work that encompassed it, com¬ 
pleted the sublime spectacle. 

That holy spot was then, indeed, polluted by the 
presence of men of strife and blood, contending for 
the possession, with other views and far less sacred 
purposes than a pious Israelite could have enter¬ 
tained : but its external aspect had undergone no 
change, neither was its sanctity diminished in the 
eyes of many thousands who daily pressed to offer 
the prayers of agonized apprehension in its beloved 
courts. It stood ; and around it rallied those whose 
hearts’ blood was ready to flow in defence of every 
stone that formed that majestic pile. It stood, even 
where the voice of Omnipotence came from heaven 
unto Abraham, when with outstretched arm he 
poised the knife above his only son, with that im¬ 
mutable promise and oath by which the blessing of 
all nations through Abraham’s seed is still secure: 
on that spot where David’s supplication had pre¬ 
vailed to avert a former judgment from Jerusalem, 
and sheathe the sword of a destroying angel, commis¬ 
sioned to visit for the monarch’s sin: on that spot 
where, in Solomon’s day, the effulgence of God’s 
presence had so filled the former house, as to ren¬ 
der it untenable by feeble man : on that spot where 
a greater than Solomon had recently made the glory 
of the second Temple surpass the glory of the for¬ 
mer house; where David’s Son and David’s Lord 
bore as an accusation the title that shall yet be his 
glory throughout the universe ; where Abraham’s 
seed, the true and only sacrifice for sin, had verified 
at once the type of Isaac’s doom, and sealed the 


THE lord’s house. 


96 


promised blessing to the utmost ends of the earth. 
He never despised, or spoke lightly even of the ma¬ 
terial structure that crowned the holy mount; many 
instances may be cited of a directly opposite tenden¬ 
cy ; as in the expression, ‘‘ Whoso shall swear by 
the Temple, sweareth by it, and by Him that dwell-- 
eth therein.^^ “ Make not my Father'^s house an house 
of merchandize and others. In like manner we 
find the apostles, to the latest period of their pro¬ 
ceedings in Jerusalem, observing the ordinances of 
tile Lord’s house; and Paul energetically clearing 
himself, not only before the Roman governors in Ju¬ 
dea, but before the Jews in Rome, of any infraction 
of tliat rule: I have committed nothing against 
the people, or customs of our fathers f he says to the 
latter ; and to the former, he reiterates the fact that 
he, as a Jew, was found by the Jews purified in 
the 2'e»2p/e,” in fulfilment of a strictly Jewish vow, 
not disputing or opposing anything connected with 
their worship. We should do well sometimes to 
call to mind the dealings and expressions of the first 
believers, the inspired apostles of our Lord, together 
with his own example, in reference to that which 
was emphatically ordained to be “ a house of pray¬ 
er for all nations instead of using means to dead¬ 
en our sympathies, and to encourage ourselves in 
contemptuous thoughts of that ‘‘ mountain of the 
Lord’s house,” to which, as to an appointed centre, 
all nations shall yet flow. 

The fort Antonia was no part of the original de¬ 
sign—the sacred antiquities of the spot. Herod 
built it on a point of rock at the northern verge of 
Moriah, where a deep trench was also carried along 
its base, separating it from Bezetha. To render 


96 


JUDJ3A CAPTA. 


this steep more inaccessible, the rock was artificially 
smoothed, from its foundation upwards, by the ad¬ 
dition of polished stone laid on its surface, so that 
any one attempting to scale it would find no possi¬ 
bility of fixing his foot there. There rose a wall 
abruptly from this hopeless ascent, and within it the 
tower ; a most formidable building, containing in 
itself every requisite for the purpose to which it was 
appropriated by its founder. Josephus aptly says, 
that whereas the Temple was a fortress that guarded 
the city, so was the tower of Antonia a guard to the 
Temple. It had four turrets at its four corners, the 
south-eastern one being considerably higher than the 
rest, and entirely commanding the whole area of the 
Temple. A Roman legion had always been sta¬ 
tioned here, and from this high turret they were ac¬ 
customed to watch the proceedings of the Jews, 
when assembled at their stated festivities ; patrolling 
also around the cloisters, into which they had open¬ 
ed communications from the lower part of the tower. 
On a former occasion, the Jews had delivered them- 
selves from this degrading intrusion, by destroying 
the range of buildings that abutted on the tower, 
and so depriving the soldiers of a covered way ; but 
they were compelled to restore them. Subsequent¬ 
ly the enemy was altogether expelled ; and Antonia 
became the prize of the strongest party among those 
whose contentions so fatally distracted and weaken¬ 
ed the city. The two leaders, Simon and John, the 
latter of whom had possession of the Temple, and 
the former of Zion, or the upper city, continued to 
oppose each other ; and Josephus represents it as 
an act of great kindness on the part of the Romans, 
to subdue the animosity by destroying both parties. 


ATTACK ON BEZETHA. 


97 


He says, “ The sedition destroyed the city, and the 
Romans destroyed the sedition ; which was a much 
harder thing to do than to destroy the walls.” 
Nevertheless, the walls gave them some trouble j and 
had not the Lord been wroth with his people, the 
virgin daughter of Zion might have shaken her 
head at those iron legions, and laughed to scorn 
their battering rams, as serenely as she derided the 
spears of the Assyrian. 

Titus, having completed his preparations, now 
proceeded closely to examine the wall, in order to 
select any weak point; and this, unhappily, he 
was enabled to do. In that part of Bezetha which 
was most thinly inhabited, the builders of Agrip- 
pa’s wall left the work in an imperfect state at its 
junction with the old wall, which here was also 
lower and more assailable. To this quarter the 
general ordered up his engines, and received a 
further stimulus to his zeal from the mischief that 
befel his friend Nicanor. Josephus, it appears on 
his own evidence, was prowling about under the 
walls, seeking to persuade his countrymen into a 
surrender, as “ a person known to them.” Known 
he had been as an illustrious Jew, and as an intre¬ 
pid warrior ; but he was also now known to them 
as a traitor, an apostate, and a deceitful tool of the 
enemy, worthy of no other reply from them than 
was conveyed in the shower of darts with which 
they greeted his insidious approach. By one of 
these weapons Nicanor was wounded in the 
shoulder ; and Titus, despairing of treachery with¬ 
in, resolved to press most vigorously the assault 
from without. He gave his soldiers leave to fire 
the suburbs, as an earnest, perhaps, of the desola- 
9 


98 


JUDiEA CAPTA 


tion that they might hope to carry to the utmost; 
he also directed them to raise banks of timber 
against the city, placing his archers in the midst of 
the workmen, and drawing out in their front a 
number of the engines, from which stones, javelins, 
and other missiles were continually cast, to deter 
the besieged from attempting a sally, and to drive 
from the walls those who were prepared to ob¬ 
struct their operations. 

And now every remaining tree available for 
their purpose was cut down ; not only the gardens 
and fragrant groves, but the stately growth of many 
an age, fell beneath the alien axe—“ the fir tree, 
and the pine tree, and the box together not, 
alas ! to beautify the place of the Lord’s sanctuary, 
but to aid in the work of its destruction. It was a 
bitter spectacle for the inhabitants of Jerusalem to 
behold their beautiful land laid waste, and the trees 
under which their fathers’ fathers had reposed,— 
trees that had seen the bright days of Judah, when 
no alien vexed her borders, — dragged heavily 
along the disfigured plain to form a huge embank¬ 
ment against them. They were not idle. They 
had not ceased to hope, and hoping to be strong 
and of good courage in contesting every stone of 
their sacred walls. They assembled towards the 
point of attack, bringing up such engines as they 
had, being spoils taken from Cestius, and from the 
lately expelled garrison of Roman soldiers. Jose¬ 
phus speaks contemptuously of their unskilful ness 
in the use of these machines, having had little 
practice or instruction in the art; but he admits 
that they frequently ran out, in defiance of 
the Roman batteries, and finally attacked the 


THE WALLS ASSAULTED. 


99 


men at the banks, who, covering themselves with 
hurdles, as at Jotapata, and, defended by their en¬ 
gines and archers, suffered but little obstruction. 
Josephus speaks with satisfaction of the havoc made 
by some extraordinary catapults belonging to the 
tenth legion, which threw masses of rock, the 
weight of a talent, to a great distance, and with 
such terrible force as to overthrow whole ranks of 
men. The Jews for a time baffled these ; not only 
the noise of the engine, but the shining whiteness 
of those stones of Zion, gave notice of their ap¬ 
proach : the watchmen stationed on their towers, 
uttered a warning cry, those around prostrated 
themselves behind their battlements, and the in¬ 
struments of death passed harmless over them. 
The Romans perceiving this, blackened the stones, 
thus rendering them less visible, and by this means 
destroyed many at one blow. Nevertheless^, their 
operations were incessantly interrupted by the 
Jews, who harassed them day and night, and 
scarcely permitted them to complete the banks. 

The work was at length completed, the inter- 
venino; o^round measured, and the dreadful engines 
advanced to the very walls ; and from three differ¬ 
ent quarters at the same moment, with a thunder¬ 
ing noise, the attack was made. A great cry was 
heard within the city, whether of terror or defiance, 
or both, the narrator does not state, but he admits 
that they suspended their quarrels, and united in 
defence of their bulwarks. Seizing lighted torches, 
they ran round the walls, hurling them at the en¬ 
gines, shooting, at the same time, their darts at 
those who worked them. A battering-ram of the 
fifteenth legion actually moved the corner of a 


100 


JUD-EA CAPTA. 


tower, and inspired hopes that a breach would be 
eSected ; but no other damage was done by it, and 
a furious sally of the Jews, who leaped down upon 
the hurdles that covered the machines, tore them 
in pieces, and attacked the men belonging to them. 
Titus found great difficulty in repelling these as¬ 
saults, though he made the most of his horsemen 
and archers, and ultimately beat back the gallant 
defenders, who brought fire to the very framework 
of the engines, and fought as did their fathers of 
old. But alas ! “ their rock had sold them and the 
Lord had shut them up.’’ 


CHAPTER IX. 


After the impression just noticed had been 
made on the upper part of the tower, the Jews sud¬ 
denly suspended their efforts. They discontinued 
the sallies, and withdrew within theiafortifications, 
leading the assailants to conclude that they were 
either so wearied out by continued exertion, or so 
intimidated by the formidable aspect of the besieg¬ 
ing army, and the shaking of one of Zion’s bul¬ 
warks, as to have yielded to despondency, and for¬ 
borne the hopeless fight. The Romans hereupon 
encouraged themselves, and hastened the comple¬ 
tion of their plan, each camp being the scene of 
eager bustle and preparation for renewed assaults, 
while every man found somewhat to occupy him 
in the military works. Quietly and unsuspected, 
the defenders collected their force, and availing 
themselves of a small private gateway at the tower 
of Hippicus, they passed out, each man provided 
with fire, and came so suddenly up to the very 
banks that the enemy were fortifying, that the Ro¬ 
man warriors were constrained to cry out to their 
dispersed comrades for help. These advanced 
from all parts of the camp to the rescue, hastily 
forming in their usual excellent order ; but neither 
numbers nor discipline availed them against the 
valor of the Jews. Josephus is obliged to confess 
this, however unwillingly, and that for a long time 
9 “^ 


102 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


new succors only came up to be routed, while one 
party struggled to fire the works and destroy the 
engines, the other to preserve them. ‘‘ The Jews,” 
says this recreant, “ were now too hard for the 
Romans by the furious assaults they made like 
madmen,’’'^ On a former occasion Josephus had 
done the same, and probably he would have thought 
it hard to stigmatize the heroes of Jotapata as furi¬ 
ous wild beasts and madmen, when contending for 
their homes, their wives, their children, their own 
good land, and * their own lives ; probably if to 
these had been added the Temple of the Lord in 
Jerusalem, and Mount Zion, the holy city itself, he 
would have used such an argument to fire the 
courage of his comrades into tenfold ardor. But 
Josephus was now the sordid craven tool of the 
pagan foe, the hireling sycophant, so sold to work 
iniquity against his own people, that he could as¬ 
sist to batter down those sacred bulwarks ; and 
even after beholding the utter, the unprecedented, 
the heart-withering destruction that came upon the 
children of Israel at the hands of savage barbarians, 
he could coolly sit down and cull degrading epi¬ 
thets wherewith to cast a stain upon the memory 
of his butchered brethren. Yet this too is over¬ 
ruled for good : out of his own mouth we judge the 
traitor, and measure by the standard of his irrepres¬ 
sible malignity the extent of his calumnious charges 
against them. 

To return to the “ madmen they succeeded 
in setting fire to the works, and for some time the 
Roman machinery was in imminent danger of be¬ 
ing reduced to ashes. A select band from Alex¬ 
andria, concerning whom the historian hints, that 


DESPERATE STRUGGLE. 


103 


their martial prowess had not previously been very 
conspicuous, succeeded, however, in staying the 
impetuous progress of the Jews, while many on 
both sides fell around the fatal engines. At length 
Titus, predestined to destroy—as did the heathen 
kings of old whenever the Lord was provoked to 
sell his people into the hand of their enemies—ad¬ 
vanced at the head of his irresistible horsemen, and, 
according to Josephus, slew with his own hand 
twelve of “ the enemy that is to say, of the fore¬ 
most Jews, who were offering themselves willingly 
for the defence of their sacred citadel. When the 
rest saw their leaders fall by a single arm, and that 
the arm of him who had brought the abomination 
of desolation to the verge of their holy place, they 
seem to have been struck with a panic—a con¬ 
sciousness that they were delivered to the destroy¬ 
er, and under this influence they retreated into the 
city. One man alone was taken alive, and he, by 
the orders of the merciless Titus, was crucified be¬ 
fore the walls, to see,” says Josephus, “whether 
the rest would be affrighted, and abate of their ob¬ 
stinacy ^ We quote this language to justify the 
loathing disgust with which we cannOt but con¬ 
template his character, and to exhibit his true feel¬ 
ing towards, or rather against, his afflicted nation. 
It does not appear that any intimidation was effect¬ 
ed by this act of cowardly ferocity ; but on the 
following night an extraordinary panic seized the 
Roman host, in which, though their scribe records 
it not, they probably did some execution one upon 
another. 

Titus had commanded the erection of three 
towers, each fifty cubits high, for the double pur- 


104 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


pose of overlooking the defences and of driving 
from the walls all who should advance to man 
them. At midnight, while the Jews within were 
in considerable agitation at the death of John, the 
general of the Idumeans, who had been shot by an 
Arabian after the battle, when standing in seeming 
security, conversing on the wall, and whose loss 
filled Jerusalem with lamentation ; and while the 
Romans quietly reposed in their camps, one of 
these towers suddenly fell down, with a terrible 
crash, leading the army to suppose that the Jews 
were upon them again. Great confusion ensued 
among the legions ; each man suspected his neigh¬ 
bor to be a foe ; on all sides the watchword was 
demanded, and tumult reigned throughout the host, 
for, seeing no enemy among them, treachery was 
generally surmised. It was not without great dif¬ 
ficulty, and probably bloodshed, that Titus suc¬ 
ceeded in explaining the incident, and allaying the 
storm. 

To, these fatal towers the Romans owed their con¬ 
quest ; they rendered resistance unavailing. Covered 
with plates of iron, they defied the agency of fire, 
hitherto so effective against the Roman works; 
their altitude secured the archers and slingers from 
all weapons levelled at them from the walls, while 
enabling them to take a sure and deadly aim at 
those below. Besides, the Romans had made them 
sufficiently strong to bear the lighter engines, and 
thus they directed whole volleys against the gar- 
who were compelled to retire, leaving the 
enormous rams to deal unobstructedly their fearful 
blows against the rampart walls. 

What heart can conceive the terrors of this sea- 





The Jews destroying tlaeRora.an towers "by fire. P. 104. 







































































MELANCHOLY PROSPECTS. 


105 


son, as experienced by those who were surrounded, 
seeing no way of escape ! We speak not of Jewish 
men so much as of the poor, weak, tender women 
and little ones, and of the very aged, some of whom 
had heard the thrilling sounds of compassionate 
warning, when, melted into sorrow, they followed 
the steps of the holy Sufferer, who bore his cross 
along the proud and stately streets of the city, and 
bewailed the cruel death to which he was igno¬ 
rantly doomed. 

“ Daughters of Jerusalem,” He said, “ weep not 
for me, but weep for yourselves and for your child¬ 
ren. For behold, the days are coming in the which 
they shall say. Blessed are the barren, and the 
wombs that never bare, and the paps which never 
gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the 
mountains. Fall on us, and to the hills. Cover us.” 
Surely such must have been the language, secret, 
if not uttered, of the terrified females, as they stole 
a glance at the tremendous array of those camps, 
swarming with a horde of fierce, brutal, sanguinary, 
licentious devil-worshippers, who never knew what 
pity meant, and who were lured to the enterprise 
by nothing but the prospect of fully satiating all 
their vilest and most ferocious passions. Surely • 
such must have been the mother’s moan, as she 
looked on her beauteous children, and pictured to 
herself the horrors of a life-long slavery, with all its 
hideous concomitants, including the torturing deaths 
reserved for multitudes in the gladiatorial and other 
murderous spectacles of Rome. Imagination faints 
beneath the effort to realize for one moment what 
those endured who were now pent in by the tot¬ 
tering walls and towers of Jerusalem. 


106 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


On the fifteenth day of the siege was the imper¬ 
fect wall of Agrippa surmounted, and Bezetha 
taken. The Jews had retired within the more pow¬ 
erful bulwarks of their second wall, having the 
northern division of the city, which was indeed but 
a modern suburb to ancient Jerusalem, for their oc¬ 
cupation. Josephus attributes their abandonment of 
it to laziness and ill-concerted counsels ; though he 
had just before proved the impossibility of their with¬ 
standing the method of assault adopted by the ene¬ 
my, who had in him an accurate informant on every 
point; an experienced soldier perfectly able to direct 
their operation against the city of his God ; and as 
consummate a traitor as ever stabbed the bosom 
which had given him suck. He, of course, would 
have preferred that the Jews had remained to be 
slaughtered in the indefensible streets of Bezetha ; 
instead of which, he found himself with his employ¬ 
ers, established on a spot most memorable for the 
destruction of their ancient predecessors—they oc¬ 
cupied now the ground where Rabshakeh had 
pitched his camp, shortly before the Divine ven¬ 
geance which followed them thence overtook the 
host of the Assyrian, and slew in one night by in¬ 
visible means a hundred and eighty-five thousand 
men. Dearly as were all their national deliver¬ 
ances cherished by the Jews, no doubt many 
thought on this, and looked for a similar miracle to 
rescue Jerusalem; they would call to mind the 
words spoken of old, in reference to the Assyrian 
invader, He shall not come into this city, nor 
shoot an arrow there, nor cast a bank against it. 
By the way that he came, by the same shall he 
return, and shall not come into this city, saith the 


FORMER TIMES. 


107 


Lord. For I will defend this city to save it, for 
mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.” 
The progress of the Roman arms had not yet ex¬ 
tended beyond the point of the Assyrian’s advance, 
and it is very probable that in suddenly retiring to 
their ancient limits the garrison had in view this 
fact. Their true unbroken wall still encompassed 
the city of Melchizedek (the ancient Jebus), the 
city of David, and Mount Moriah : in Scripture 
language, Jerusalem, Zion, and the Mountain of 
the Lord’s house; and it is remarkable that such 
are the limits named in the promises of future ex¬ 
altation to the holy city. Confined within a nar¬ 
rower compass, suffering much more from the 
strictness of the siege, and having a nearer, a much 
more formidable view of the enemy, still the daugh¬ 
ter of Zion sat as a queen within the uninvaded circuit 
of her oridnal domain ; and the utmost demolition 
effected by the Romans in the northern quarter of 
the city was but the renewal of what Cestius had 
previously done. From this period, every advan¬ 
tage obtained by the besiegers was indeed against 
Jerusalem. 

The camp being thus far advanced, and all the 
battering engines brought up, the attack was, of 
course, upon the wall that stretched from the tower 
of Antonia to that of Hippicus, sweeping round 
Acra, and enclosing the busiest, the most crowded 
part of the whole city. Here were the shops and 
markets ; here the artizans resided, and business of 
all kinds was transacted. The streets were nar¬ 
row, steep, and intricate, rising towards the Tem¬ 
ple by causeways and flights of steps, and descend¬ 
ing again into the Tyropean pass, which it must 


108 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


always be borne in mind was then a deep ravine, 
an exceedingly narrow and abrupt valley, inter¬ 
secting the three mounts, Moriah, Zion, and Acra. 
To judge of ancient Jerusalem by the position 
of its surface in our day, is merely to mis¬ 
lead ourselves ; for the very outlines are in many 
places lost ; and the interior details present 
an appearance wholly unlike its former aspect. 
“ Built upon its own heap,’’ parts of the city 
now stand on foundations overtopping the summit 
of lofty buildings that once occupied the same site, 
as regards mere measurement from given points ; 
and when we talk of hills and passes, we refer 
to places where at this moment perhaps a level 
plain extends beneath the incredulous eye. Many 
who visit the spot with minds correctly impressed 
from scripture with the real aspect of the city of 
David, and its surrounding localities, are perplexed, 
disappointed, and almost tempted to doubt the accu¬ 
racy of the inspired description ; while, in like man¬ 
ner, the inquirer into such historical records, as this 
of Josephus, is led to account many things fabulous, 
because his modern plan of Jerusalem tends to con¬ 
tradict them. No other place under heaven has 
known such marvellous changes ; no other country 
has undergone so strange a succession of desolating 
and transforming vicissitudes ; but in despite of all, 
we may recall every event of her memorable his¬ 
tory in connection with the very spot on which it oc¬ 
curred ; and sweet to those who love her will be 
the task, when the days of her mourning are ended ! 

While Titus marshalled his bands for a fresh at¬ 
tack, having also opened, by his recent advance, a 
much nearer communication with the camp on 


INCESSANT COMBATS. 


109 


Mount Olivet, the Jews also disposed their force to 
the best advantage. John of Gischala occupied the 
tower of Antonia, and the northern range of clois¬ 
ters ; while Simon, his rival, manned the wall, where 
it stretched in a crescent form, bendino; back to an 
old gate, near the tower of HijDpicus, for its course 
was like a bent bow, almost semicircular, bulging 
out to the north-west; and then meeting the old 
wall, in its course westward from the temple. Di¬ 
vided into several bodies, the Jews planted them¬ 
selves on this line of wall, and most gallantly de¬ 
fended it, throwing darts at the enemy. They also 
made frequent sallies, from which they were speed¬ 
ily driven back, by the vast superiority of the Ro¬ 
man army, in weapons, discipline, and generalship ; 
but on the walls they proved too much for their ad¬ 
versaries, and often repulsed them. The battle raged 
from day to day, without any other perceptible ad¬ 
vantage than that which the besiegers gained from 
the increasing misery and privations of the besieged. 
Josephus says, that the combat was persevered in 
with equal obstinacy on both sides ; commencing 
with the morning’s light, and “ night itself had 
much ado to part them.” A sleepless watch, with¬ 
out and wuthin, with eager impatience for the mor¬ 
row, occupied the hours of darkness; the Romans 
hoping by some mighty effort to overcome their gal¬ 
lant opposers, and to grasp the prey : the Jews still 
looking for deliverance from Him who had of old 
put their enemies to shameful flight, and who had, 
‘‘ as birds flying,” protected his Jerusalem. Neither 
put off their armor during the night, but lay ready 
to start up at earliest dawn; the great ambition 
among the Jew's being to secure the post of greatest 
10 


no 


JUDJEA CAPTA. 


danger. This Josephus admits; at the same time 
telling us it was done to gratify their commander. 
A motive worthy to be imputed to them by one who 
only lived to please Titus ; and whose debased soul 
could now conceive of no higher incentive than the 
patronizing smile of a master ; even though that 
master was an idolatrous heathen, steeped to the 
lips in the blood of Israel. 

Immediately after this contemptible endeavor to 
derogate from the patriotic valor of his own nation, 
and proving that the hope of gaining the favor of 
Titus really was the principal stimulus of the 
Romans, he admits that death itself seemed a small 
matter to any Jew, if he could but kill one of the 
enemy. In other words, they fought for their 
home ; for the city of their fathers and the Temple 
of their God ; and happy did he account himself 
who diminished, even by one individual, the host 
arrayed against them, though in the act he yielded 
his own life. If anything had been wanting to 
prove how factitious were the vaunted honor and 
magnanimity of these Roman heroes, behold the 
fact of their permitting, yea, employing a treacher¬ 
ous deserter thus to slander the dead, whose 
courageous self-devotion in the cause of their own 
country would have moved any honorable foe to 
respect their memories and applaud their valor. 
But we are constantly reminded of the prophetic 
character of the fourth Beast: it not only devoured 
and broke in pieces ; it stamped the residue with 
the feet of it.” 

Titus having brought one of his battering-rams 
to bear on a central tower in the northern part of 
the second wall, a device was practised, showing 


VALOR OF THE JEWS. 


Ill 


at once the cool self-possession of those whom the 
historian calls madmen, and the fertility of their 
minds in discovering hindrances to stay the enemy’s 
progress. Pent in as they w^ere, suffering all the 
horrors of famine, and without hope of succor from 
man, these contrivances prove the perseverance of 
their expectation that the God of Israel would yet 
show himself mindful of his suffering people, and 
rebuke the destroyer for their sakes. It is plain, 
they could not persuade themselves that Jerusalem, 
so long the throne of God’s promise, and the Tem¬ 
ple where He once delighted to dwell, would really 
become the prey of those exterminating enemies : 
they hoped that, after sorely afflicting them, per¬ 
haps He would yet repent and return, and bestow 
a blessing ; and thus hoping, they deemed every 
hour’s delay of importance to be purchased at any 
price. A Jew, named Castor, taking with him ten 
more, formed an ambush in the tow^er now assailed 
by the ram ; all the rest having withdrawn from the 
aim of the Roman marksmen. They lay still until 
the tower began to shake, then showed them¬ 
selves, and Castor, crying for mercy, implored that 
Titus would receive their submission and ensure 
their safety in the usual way, by giving his right 
hand. The general, w'hose great object vras to 
gain as much as he could by treachery on the other 
side, so sparing the lives of his own troops, lent a 
willing ear, commanded the ram to be stopped, and 
encouraged Castor to proceed with his overtures. 
The Jew (having privately sent word to Simon that 
he would amuse the enemy for some time, to allow 
him more space for consultation upon the defence) 
protested his readiness to descend from the tower, 


112 


JUDJEA CAPTA. 


and deliver himself and his companions upon con¬ 
dition of the afore-mentioned pledge. Titus assented, 
expressing his desire to extend the security to the 
whole city, if all the inhabitants could be brought 
to the same mind. 

While these compliments were passing, five of 
the ten men burst out into vehement protestations 
that they would sooner die than agree to the pro¬ 
posed submission ; the others pretended to reason 
with them, and a long altercation ensued, during 
which the Romans stood idly by, hoping to gain 
more by this defection, than by the strokes of their 
battering-ram. The pretended debate grew appa¬ 
rently to a quarrel: Castor was exhorting the ob¬ 
jectors to yield, and they in return brandishing their 
swords, and, finally, appearing to stab themselves, 
and to fall down slain, to the great admiration of 
Titus and his men ; removed as they were to a dis¬ 
tance, from which they could not clearly ascertain 
what passed. A dart was, however, shot at Cas¬ 
tor, and stuck in his face : he drew it forth, and 
appealed to Titus against the unfairness of the pro¬ 
ceeding, on which the archer was reprimanded. It 
may readily be supposed that all this occupied some 
precious time. Jospehus, standing by his patron^ 
was desired to go to Castor, with the right hand of 
security, but he prudently declined : suspecting the 
sincerity of his brethren’s treason, he also withheld 
others who would have gone. Castor, however, 
continued to call for some one to come and receive 
his money, which tempted another renegade, less 
cautious than Josephus, to hasten towards him. 
He was saluted by the hurling of a keavy stone 
from Castor’s hand, which missed him, but wound- 


A NEW STRATAGEM. 


113 


ed another person. Titus now saw the real object 
of the parley, and, as Josephus remarks, perceiv¬ 
ed that mercy in war is a pernicious thing ; because 
such cunning tricks have less exercise under greater 
severity.” He accordingly ordered the battering 
to be resumed more vigorously than before ; but 
as soon as the tower began to tremble, Ca.stor and 
his companions set it on fire, leaping into the 
flames, to the great admiration of the Romans, by 
whom suicide was held in the highest esteem ; but 
Josephus says they only leaped into a hidden vault, 
through which they escaped. How he ascertained 
the fact must remain doubtful: but the stratasrem 
itself, wdth all the falsifying particulars that he was 
sure to interweave in his narrative, in deteriora¬ 
tion of the Jewish character, goes far to prove that 
real treachery was exceeding rare among the be¬ 
sieged, though most eagerly sought after by the as 
sailants. 

Before we recount the further progress of the 
enemy, it is needful to remind the reader that 
within the city were two classes : one compris¬ 
ing the helpless, weak, unarmed civilians, many 
of whom no doubt were led, in this extremity, 
to recognize the hand of the Lord, and to hum¬ 
ble themselves under it; while others, seeing the 
utter hopelessness of resistance, saw no possible 
way of escape from indiscriminate slaughter, save 
in an immediate and unconditional surrender: 
and with these were doubtless many who, in 
the extremity of fear and suffering, would have 
bartered their right both in the holy place and 
in the chosen nation, for deliverance from pre¬ 
sent misery. The other class, called by Jose- 
10 * 


114 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


phus the seditious, because they rebelled against 
the sovereign will of Rome, consisted of the fighting 
men—those who were resolved to perish amid the 
ruins of their city, rather than connive at the ad¬ 
vance of a hostile footstep within its sacred boun¬ 
daries. We have already seen by what cruel ag¬ 
gressions the Jews w^ere originally goaded into 
hostile measures, at first purely defensive, but 
amounting at length to the forcible expulsion of a 
powerful people, who had long held them tributary. 
They had fully recognized the Roman government, 
had long seen their cities garrisoned by Roman 
troops, and relinquished all claim to independent 
legislation or self-government. “ It is not lawful 
for us to put any man to death:” “We have no 
king but Ccesar.” 

These were voluntary declarations of a state in 
which the sceptre had departed from Judah, and 
the Lawgiver from between his feet; and, strictly 
speaking, they were guilty of insurrection against 
regularly instituted authorities. In former years, 
God had vouchsafed to send them prophets and 
deliverers, commissioned to break the yoke from off 
their necks, which their iniquities had provoked 
Him to lay on them : now, there had been no voice 
of prophecy to direct, no anointed champion to lead, 
a movement of the kind. Had it been otherwise, 
' the Roman power would have broken and crum¬ 
bled beneath them, and its fragments scattered like 
the chaff of the summer threshing-floor. As it was, 
those who struggled for freedom bore the brand of 
sedition; and so, with some color of reason, 
though every feeling of the heart involuntarily rises 
against it, the wily Josephus characterizes all 


PLAN TO CARRY ACRA. 


115 


who withstood the re-occupation of Jerusalem by 
the alien power of Rome. Let it, however, be also 
borne in mind, that matters had gone too far to ad¬ 
mit the faintest hope of mercy on the part of their 
tyrants, if again ascendant; and in contending for 
their city, the Jews were contending for their lives, 
as opposed to the most cruel deaths that fiends in 
human form could invent; and for their liberties as 
opposed to tortured and fettered slavery in a foreign 
land, wdiere men, like beasts of prey, revelled in 
blood. No marvel, then, if, as Josephus asserts, 
the garrison threatened, and even inflicted, capital 
punishment on such as proposed to surrender the 
city. Expecting, as some did, a Divine interposi¬ 
tion, and resolved, as others were, to resist to their 
last gasp the torrent of desolation that menaced 
Jerusalem, there was no alternative. 

The Romans greatly dreaded these warlike Jews, 
wLile affecting to despise them ; and having so val¬ 
uable a specimen of a purchased traitor in Josephus 
himself, Titus hoped, by a fair show of leniency to 
the more timid portion of the inhabitants, to unite 
them on his behalf against the garrison. Beyond 
the second wall lay Acra, inhabited by the most 
peaceable classes; its narrow streets, running ob¬ 
liquely from tbe wall, were peopled by braziers, 
dealers and workers in wjooI, and such like ; the 
cloth market also being there, and shops of every 
kind. If Titus could but obtain quiet possession of 
this commercial quarter, he might safely calculate 
on reducing the remainder with little sacrifice of 
time, trouble, or life ; for here too were the few 
provisions that remained in store, and from hence 
he might carry on his operations against the Temple 


116 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


in front, and the upper city on his right hand. The 
breach, therefore, made in the second wall, was 
most important; he did not stay to widen it, for 
he hoped by fair words, and restraining his soldiers 
from any violence, to ensure a welcome, or at least 
to meet no resistance while taking up a new posi¬ 
tion on this advanced ground j but he had more to 
learn. 


CHAPTER X. 


Although Titus had, according to Josephus, 
just before perceived that “ mercy in war is a per¬ 
nicious thing,” it is surprising with what dove-like 
intentions this Roman eagle entered through the 
breach into the lower city, as set forth in the next 
paragraph of his history. His purpose was to do 
the Jews a kindness, not to afflict them more than 
was needful ; to make them ashamed of their ob¬ 
stinacy, by the magnanimity „of his forbearance. 
He forbade his soldiers to kill the tradespeople, or 
to fire their houses ; nay, he gave “ the seditious” 
leave to fight, without involving their fellow- 
townsmen in the consequences of their temerity. 
All this must have sounded very generous in the 
ears of the braziers and weavers; but they were 
Jews—the spot was Jerusalem—the invader was a 
worshipper of stocks and stones, and his right-hand 
man, his chief adviser, was a degraded apostate 
from the cause of Israel. Having once more pro¬ 
claimed the word—Death to the Jew who should 
speak of surrender—those whom Titus had so 
courteously permitted to fight, proceeded to do so, 
and never ceased until they had driven him with all 
his routed host back through the breach at which 
they entered. 

In the first place, a body of the Jews made a 
sudden sally from the upper gates, falling on the 


118 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


enemy outside the walls, with such effect, that 
the guards, posted by Titus on the towers and 
battlements, leaped down in a panic and fled to 
their camps, shouting with a great cry of alarm and 
distress, on account of their general and comrades 
within, to whom they could afford no succor. The 
cry was echoed by the latter, who found them¬ 
selves encompassed on all sides, driven through 
narrow streets and cross-lanes wholly new to them, 
while to their pursuers every turning was familiar. 
Entangled in the narrowest passes, hunted down 
the steep descents, or pursued up their acclivities 
by far more practised feet; assailed from the 
houses, and not knowing how to regain the spot 
where they had entered, the Roman force, con¬ 
sisting of a thousand choice warriors, might all have 
fallen, had not Titus gained the breach, the narrow 
dimensions of which he too late regretted, and by 
a careful disposition of his archers, in some mea¬ 
sure covered the retreat. How many escaped we 
are not informed; but the loss must have been 
great, and the rout complete for the time. The 
bitter reviling with which Josephus mingles his 
forced admission of the bravery of his own people, 
leads to a supposition that he counselled this abor¬ 
tive attempt. Howsoever that may be, the fact is 
acknowledged, that when the Romans in full force 
returned to the breach, the Jews made a wall of 
their own bodies in place of the stones that had 
been thrown down ; and in this way, for three en¬ 
tire days, bade defiance to the utmost efforts of the 
Roman army. 

What a spectacle was this ! A people terri¬ 
ble from their beginning hitherto,” once so invin- 


FORMER GLORY OF ISRAEL. 


119 


cible that not only the armies of opposing nations, 
but the very elements themselves were made to 
flee before them. The sea fled, and Jordan was 
driven back, that a way might be made for the ran¬ 
somed to pass over. It was not their power, nor 
the might of their arm that wrought deliverance of 
old, but it was the presence of the Eternal their 
God, who scattered their every enemy, and caused 
every obstacle to melt away as they advanced. 
Long they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit; 
long they made Him to serve with their sins, wea¬ 
ried Him with their iniquities, slew the messengers 
of His mercy, and finally refused even that Mes¬ 
senger of the Covenant, whose coming they longed 
for, who came suddenly into the Temple, and 
brought salvation unto Zion, and was despised, 
rejected, and slain. The glory departed from Isra¬ 
el ; the power of the Most Highest upheld them 
no longer. Yet so accustomed were they to mira¬ 
culous interpositions, so utterly unable to convince 
themselves of the awful truth that Jerusalem must 
now sit down in the dust, so unable to conceive how 
a host of idolatrous barbarians should have license 
given to pollute the city of the Great King, that 
they dared even to the verge of a miraculous mani¬ 
festation of mortal energy, and piled themselves, the 
living and the dead, in an impenetrable mass of 
fleshly bulwarks before their beloved Zion ! Hate¬ 
ful to God must be the feeling, and hateful to man 
it ought to be, that hardens itself against the peo¬ 
ple whom the Lord so heavily smote ; that dwells 
, on this tale as a mere matter of exciting amusement, 
or historical information, and does not lament and 
grieve over the branches of the Lord’s fair vine- 



120 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


yard, thus mangled and torn, and trodden down tn 
the mire by men more cruel than ravenous beasts 
of prey. Even Josephus, whose book is a glaring 
monument of his own perfidious infamy and false¬ 
hood, says, “ they made a wall of their own bodies 
over against that part of the wall which was cast 
down the breach whereby the Romans had once 
entered, and through which they were driven out. 
But on the fourth day, the darts and spears, the cata¬ 
pult and battering-rams prevailed; and the rem¬ 
nant of Israelites retreated, leaving the entrance 
free. It was not to themselves, but to God with 
them, and Godin them,that their fathers owed and 
attributed their marvellous victories. “ Some-trust 
in chariots and some in horses,” said the conquering 
David, “ but we will remember the name of the 
Lord our God.” Nor was it a mere remembrance 
of that name, or its repetition, that helped them, but 
a realizing of the Divine Presence in all its majesty 
and might. They were alike accustomed to attempt 
by deeds of daring the most marvellous achieve¬ 
ments, and to ‘‘ stand still, and see the salvation of 
the JjOrd.” 

Joshua by the sound of rams’ horns, Gideon with 
his pitchers and lamps, Samson with the jaw-bone 
of an ass, David with a pebble from the brook, con¬ 
quered as surely, as fully, as did the numerous hosts 
who went forth to war with sword and spear. In 
every combat the victory was the Lord’s ; and no 
pious Israelite ever dreamed of arrogating to himself 
the glory of his conquests. We have no inspired 
record of the last dreadful siege, but in the book of 
Jeremiah are abundant proofs of the state of defec¬ 
tion into which Judah must have fallen, as regarded 


PROPHETIC DECLARATION. 121 

the spiritual worship of the Most High, before He 
could have wholly given up His sanctuary to be so 
polluted, his people to be so destroyed. The service 
books now in use by the Jews all over the world 
were so to a great extent previous to the present 
dispersion ; and many of their lamentations were 
originally composed during the Babylonian captiv¬ 
ity. That, however, was as nothing compared with 
the Roman, and the Lord must have been far more 
grievously displeased with His people at the latter 
than at the former period. Yet they had carefully 
abstained from their ancient provocations ; they had 
kept themselves free from idolatry, and in every par¬ 
ticular had shown themselves zealous of the law. 
How, then, had they drawn upon themselves this 
terrible visitation ? Isaiah prophetically declares it 
in his twenty-ninth chapter, which contains both the 
purposed wrath and the purposed mercy, in very 
distinct and striking sequence. He there says, 
‘‘ Wherefore, the Lord says. Inasmuch as this peo¬ 
ple draw near me with their mouth, and with their 
lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far 
from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the 
precept of men: therefore, behold I will proceed to 
do a marvellous work and a wonder : for the wis¬ 
dom of their wise men shall perish, and the under¬ 
standing of their prudent men shall be hid.” By 
the Divine commandment every Israelite ought 
himself to be instructed and to teach his children, 
out of the law, as given by Moses, and out of the 
inspired writings of the prophets ; but, gradually, 
they had exchanged this practice for a blind sub¬ 
mission to one particular class of men, who under¬ 
took to guide them, and to whose guidance they 
11 


122 


JUDiEA CAFfA. 


surrendered themselves. These were their wfee 
men whose wisdom perished ; their prudent men 
whose understanding was hid ; and these in the 
day of their calamity profited them nothing ; less 
than nothing, for, by putting their own interpreta¬ 
tions between the scriptures and those for whom 
the scriptures were written, they blinded them to 
the clear fulfilment of predictions therein contained, 
and so brought upon them the last and deepest of 
all their afflictions. The fear of God—'the whole 
sum and substance of religion—was taught by pre¬ 
cepts of men ; those mere human precepts became 
to them instead of that opening of the eyes by the 
Lord himself which David prayed for ; and thus 
was darkness permitted to fail upon the Lord’s 
dear heritage; and thus were they led to trust to 
the arm of flesh—to themselves and their lead¬ 
ers—and in bitter anguish of soul they withdrew 
from the fatal breach, leaving the whole extent of 
Acra, in addition to Bezetha, in the hand of the 
enemy. Titus provided against another expulsion 
by completely demolishing the sacred wall; then 
strengthened as best he might the threatened quar¬ 
ters, and permitted his forces to rest, while he took 
a leisurely survey, and matured his plans for the 
next attack. He had learned some caution by 
what was past: and also entertained hope that the 
loss of the sacred wall, and increasing scantiness of 
their supplies, would induce the garrison to listen 
to his proposals, and by admitting the army to be¬ 
come unresisting victims. To further this design, 
he contrived a most intimidating spectacle cal¬ 
culated at once to inflate the pride of his vain- 


MILITARY SPECTACLE. 


123 


glorious followers, and to dishearten the pent-up 
Israelites. 

The usual day for paying the troops having ar¬ 
rived, the whole camp was put in motion. Each 
commander had orders to draw up his own men in 
battle-array, full}? armed, their polished cuirasses 
displayed, their weapons glittering in the sunshine ; 
the horses in their proudest trappings, each led by 
a man in splendid mail, and, in short, the grandest 
possible parade of that magnificent and formidable 
host. Thus equipped, they marched slowly past, 
each receiving in turn his subsistence money : and 
so numerous were the legions that four days were 
occupied in paying them. The north wall of the 
Temple, the forts, and all the upper part of the re¬ 
maining wall,were covered with Jews contemplating 
the scene ; and very marvellous it appeared to Jo¬ 
sephus that not one among them gave any indica¬ 
tion of turning traitor. Neither the power nor 
the wealth, neither the savage menaces nor oily 
persuasions of the Roman, might overcome the 
constancy of those who garrisoned Jerusalem. 
This their unworthy calumniator attributes to their 
consciousness of having committed such crimes 
and cruelties against the more peaceable citizens 
as c^uld never be forgiven by the Romans, whose 
meek and merciful nature must, of course, have 
revolted at any instance of barbarity. He also at¬ 
tributes their obstinacy in part to the decree of a 
certain heathen power called Fate^ whose will, he 
says, it was that the innocent should suffer with the 
guilty. Such is the language of one who is reput¬ 
ed to have been a Christian when he wrote this 
narrative ! 


124 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


The Roman general was fully aware, alike of the 
advantages gained and the .difficulties that still be¬ 
set his path. During the four days’ rest so artfully 
improved to the furtherance of his object, he had 
matured his plans. The point where he was sure 
to meet with the most desperate resistance was, of 
course, the holy mount, — the Temple, while Zion 
appeared an easier prey. To keep possession of it, 
however, would be difficult so long as the second 
citadel was in the hands of those who believed that 
its possession was a pledge of their ultimate triumph 
over every foe. Accordingly he resolved to recom¬ 
mence the attack at two several points, assailing 
fort Antonia, as a key to the Temple, and at the 
same time endeavoring to carry the upper city at a 
point called John’s monument. He was vigorously 
and effectually resisted at both, John defending the 
tower, and Simon,, with the Idumeans, the city 
wall. It appears that they had, by continual prac¬ 
tice, become expert in the use of those engines 
their awkwardness at wdiich Josephus had formerly 
ridiculed ; and having forty catapults of their own 
for hurling stones, three hundred for shooting forth 
darts, all ranged advantageously on the wall and 
towers, they presented a more formidable front 
than Titus wished to encounter. He proceeded 
with his banks ; but still hoping to come in peace¬ 
ably, and obtain the place by flatteries, he deputed 
Josephus to harangue them in their own language, 
thinking the sooner to persuade them by means of 
one who knew how to strike the master-chord of 
Jewish hearts. Four folio pages are filled with 
that oration, as reported by its author, from which 
we shall extract a few specimens. He first went 


HARANGUE OF JOSEPHUS. 


125 


round to select a place where the darts from their 
hands could not reach him, while his words, more 
sharp than swords, albeit smoother than oil, 
might take full effect on them ; and having so en¬ 
sconced himself, he began by exalting the liberal¬ 
ism of Rome in matters of faith, especially 
their reverence for the Jewish rites, their invinci¬ 
ble prowess in arms, and that claim on the continu¬ 
ed submission of the Jews which a long course of 
dominion over them established. He set forth the 
universal sway of the Romans in these blasphemous 
terms : “ Evident it is that Fortune is on all hands 
gone over to them, and that God, when he had 
gone round the nations with this dominion, is now 
settled in Italy To the knowledge of this assum¬ 
ed fact he attributed the submission of their fathers 
to the Roman arm; laying it down, also, as a law 
of God, universally recognized, that the weaker 
must always submit quietly to those who are 
stronger in war. Had this principle been acted 
upon by Israel of old, had they feared or faltered 
when led to assail nations greater and mightier than 
themselves, in possession of that very land of Ca¬ 
naan—had Judah shrunk from following his war¬ 
rior kings when they went forth to battle against 
multitudes that could not be numbered, the very 
memory of their name had long before perished 
from the earth. Well might the Jews scoff, as he 
tells us they did, at his heathenish nonsense. How¬ 
ever, he went on, representing the sure destruction 
that awaited them from famine, even if their remain¬ 
ing walls withstood the Roman power awhile, ex¬ 
patiating on the advantages of an immediate surren¬ 
der, and full reliance on the clemency of Titus, 
11 * 


126 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


until the jeers, the reproaches, and the darts that 
were flung against him convinced him how hope¬ 
less was that line of argument. He then ceased to 
talk as a pagan, and assailed them on the ground 
of their own nationality—the history of the past, 
and the present melancholy contrast. The Most 
High God, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, whom he had just before profanely repre¬ 
sented as having set up his dominion in Italy, 
among the obscene demon-gods of the Pantheon, he 
now thought fit to exalt, as the only shield and 
strength of Israel in days past. “ I even tremble 
myself,” said he, “ in declaring the works of God 
before your ears, that are so unworthy to hear 
them.” He proceeded to remind them how Abra¬ 
ham, their father, when the king of Egypt seized 
“ Queen Sarah,” instead of marshalling his great 
army to retake her by force, only spread out his 
hands towards the Temple of Jerusalem (not quite 
nine hundred years before it was founded), on which 
the queen was sent back in safety, and the Egyp¬ 
tian monarch fled, adoring the holy place which 
they were now defiling by bloodshed. After this 
monstrous fable, he recounted their deliverances 
from Egypt, from the Assyrians, and from Babylon, 
and reminded them of the judgments at various 
times brought upon Israel by their transgressions ; 
drawing the inference that self-defence was not 
lawful to the Jews when assailed from without, 
seeing that their calamities and their deliverances 
had always come from God himself. 

Whether Josephus really thought as he spoke we 
cannot determine ; but if he did, the conviction must 
have forced itself upon his mind subsequently to his 


HISTORY PERVERTED. 


127 


own memorable defence of J otapata. Then follow¬ 
ed some reproaches against those whom he was ad¬ 
dressing for their impiety and wickedness, with sar¬ 
castic remarks on their w'orthiness to be delivered, 
as was Hezekiah of old—a parallel drawn between 
their ancient Assyrian enemies and the Romans, very 
much to the advantage of the latter—bold assertions 
that former generations had been delivered only 
because of their righteousness, which proved the 
speaker’s utter ignorance of the scriptures; for 
there is not a declaration more frequentl}’^ repeat¬ 
ed, from Moses to the last prophet, than that not 
for their sakes, not for their righteousness, but for 
his holy Name’s sake, that it should not be pollut¬ 
ed among the heathen, in whose sight he had 
brought them out, did the Lord continue to inter¬ 
pose and to save his people ; and that in like man¬ 
ner, and for the same cause. He will yet finally 
gather, restore, exalt, and save them. 

Josephus, if he rightly reports himself, went on 
reproving and reproaching his brethren at great 
length ; hard-hearted wretches,” “ insensible 
creatures, and more stupid than stones,” are 
among his persuasive epithets. He finishes by 
denying that the necessary involving of his own 
family, his mother, wife, and children, who were, 
it seems, in the city, in their common ruin, had 
led him to address them ; he gives permission to 
the Jews to kill them, and himself also, if they 
doubt his disinterestedness ; at the same time 
carefully shielding himself from the darts that were 
cast at him by his exasperated hearers. He spoke 
with a loud voice, but to no purpose ; neither to 
fraud nor force would they yield their city 


128 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


There were, notwithstanding, many individual 
desertions ; many, hoping to escape the last mise¬ 
ries of the crisis which they foresaw, swallowed 
their gold, as the only practicable plan of conceal¬ 
ment, and fled to the Romans. Josephus says that 
Titus allowed “ a great many of them’’ to go 
where they pleased about the country, from which 
we must infer that there were some, and probably 
the bulk of the number, who experienced his ten¬ 
der mercies in present death, or more cruel sla¬ 
very. Even the privilege of wandering through 
the land was only that of falling into the power of 
those barbarous legions who now wholly occupied 
it. We cannot doubt that some, brought back to 
God by the fearful calamities that they had endur¬ 
ed, were so delivered and found refuge under the 
covert of His wings whose faithfulness and truth 
are a shield and buckler to all that trust in Him. 
As to the barbarities perpetrated by the armed 
garrison on the defenders and citizens, which Jo¬ 
sephus gives in more full and horrifying detail after 
they had rejected with contempt and indignation 
his specious interference, we say nothing. The 
testimony is altogether that of a bitter, a mortified, 
a conscience-stricken enemy, to whom their perse¬ 
vering constancy must have been a keen reproach ; 
but of the sufferings endured by all in that straitly- 
besieged city there can be no question ; the most 
heart-rending details cannot have exaggerated the 
reality. The only incredible thing is one which, 
nevertheless, we are compelled to believe, that one 
of their own nation, of their own kindred, one who 
had been a champion of their cause, and had also 
suffered in like manner in defending a far less sacred 


INCREDIBLE RECITALS. 


129 


post, should have witnessed it all, have taken part 
with their merciless butchers, and at last have sat 
down coolly to record the tale in a spirit of the 
deepest injustice towards them, and of the most 
fawning sycophancy towards their blood-stained 
destroyers. 


CHAPTER XI. 


The horror that befell the besieged might be de¬ 
tailed in other language, but in none so touching as 
that of inspiration, and to that we will principally 
confine ourselves. The words of the prophet Jere¬ 
miah are not historical only, they are clearly pro¬ 
phetic, and as such the Jews apply them to the 
more recent desolation of their city, the destruction 
of a Temple that was to lie waste for many gene¬ 
rations. But still further back, even before the 
children of Israel had seen the promised land, we 
find a terrible description of what was in the far 
distant future—the immediate precursor of a dis¬ 
persion and a desolation of a long, long contin¬ 
uance. It is very awful to read; alas! hoio 
awful to know that to the strictest letter of the 
uttermost denunciation it has been actually ful¬ 
filled I 

In the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy is 
the following description of what, nearly fifteen hun¬ 
dred years afterwards, was inflicted on the children 
of Israel under the proud standard of the Roman 
eagle :—‘‘ The Lord shall bring a nation against 
thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle 
flieth ; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not under¬ 
stand, a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not 
regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the 
young: and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and 


AWFUL PREDICTIONS 


131 


the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed ; which 
also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or 
the increase of thy kine, or the flocks of thy sheep, 
until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege 
thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls 
come down, wherein thou trusted, throughout all 
thy land which the Lord thy God hath given thee.” 

This perfectly describes the devastating march of 
the Roman enemy, who last came from Britain, the 
farthest end of the then known world. As they 
passed along the country of Judsea, their consump¬ 
tion of its produce, their conquest of its fenced cities 
one after another, the pitiless barbarity with which 
they slaughtered the aged, and doomed the young 
to sufferings more cruel, because more protracted 
than immediate death, together with the crafty 
policy that systematically left a wilderness behind 
them by carefully destroying all the fruit trees, and 
burning to its roots the produce of the ground. 
Then follows their final conquest over the last at¬ 
tempt at self-defence in Jerusalem. 

“ And thou shalt eat the fruits of thine own body, 
the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which 
the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege and 
in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall dis¬ 
tress thee : so that the man that is tender among 
you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward 
his brethren, and toward the wife of his bosom, and 
toward the remnant of his children which he shall 
have ; so that he will not give to any of them of the 
flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he 
hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the strait¬ 
ness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in 
all thy gates. The tender and delicate worntm among 


132 


JUD-EA CAPTA. 


you, which would not endure to set the sole of her 
foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, 
her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her 
bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daugh-^ 
ter, and toward her young one that cometh out from 
between her feet, and toward her children which 
she shall bear : for she shall eat them for want of all 
things, secretly, in the siege and straitness, where¬ 
with thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.” 

Better in the Lord’s own solemn words to describe 
what He had foreshown, than to dwell on the ap¬ 
palling details of their exact fulfilment, by one who 
looked on the smitten flock with the eye of an 
enemy. We need no evidence to assure us that 
every particular prediction was accomplished ; for 
what word of the Most High ever fell or can fall to 
the ground ? • That it was a literal and not a figur¬ 
ative description, we have abundant proof; and, 
blessed be the holy name of the Eternal! we sure¬ 
ly know that literal and not figurative are the glo¬ 
rious promises yet to be fulfilled to the same Israel! 

Jeremiah thus grievingly laments over the vision 
of past and future calamities blended in one :— 

“ The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine 
gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, 
the work of the hands of the potter ! 

“ Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast; 
they give suck to their young ones ; 

The daughter of my people is become cruel, 
like the ostrich in the wilderness. 

“ The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to 
the . roof of his mouth for thirst: 

“ The young children ask bread, and no man 
breaketh it unto them. 


PROPHETIC LAMENTATION. 


133 


‘‘ They that did feed delicately are desolate in 
the streets ; 

“ They that were brought up in scarlet embrace 
dunghills. 

“For the punishment of the iniquity of the 
daughter of my people is greater than the punish¬ 
ment of the sin of Sodom, 

“ That was overthrown in a moment, and no 
hands stayed on her. 

“ Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they 
were whiter than milk, 

“ They were more ruddy in body than rubies, 
their polishing was of sapphire : 

“ Their visage is blacker than a coal: they are 
not known in the streets : 

“ Their skin cleaveth to their bones : it is with¬ 
ered, it is become like a stick. 

“ They that be slain with the sword are better 
than they that be slain with hunger ; 

“ For these pine away, stricken through for want 
of the fruits of the field. 

“ The hands of the pitiful women have sodden 
their own children. 

“ They were their meat in the destruction of the 
daughter of my people. 

“ The Lord hath accomplished his fury; He 
hath poured out his fierce anger, 

“ And hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath 
devoured the foundations thereof. 

“ The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants 
of the world would not have beheved, 

“ That the adversary and ihe enemy should 
have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.” 

Such is the strain of an inspired Jew, sensible of 
12 


134 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


the sin of his people, and justifying the Lord for all 
the terrible things that He had done upon them ; we 
cannot place beside it the language of an apostate 
Jew,whose heart was steeled by pride, covetousness, 
and ambition, to look upon the agonizing spectacle, 
and insult the victims. Suffice it then, to say, that 
to this extremity were the inhabitants of Jerusalem 
reduced when Titus proceeded, with his extensive 
embankment, to encircle the remaining wall. And 
now we have to record an instance of such hideous 
cruelty and wrong as never, perhaps, stained the 
pages of any history. Multitudes of the poorest, the 
most peaceable, the most helpless class within the 
city, being reduced to absolute starvation, were 
driven to the desperate venture of stealing out of the 
gates to gather a little of the herbage, and such re¬ 
fuse as they could find beyond the walls, with which 
to feed their famishing parents or children. They 
had no intention to desert, preferring to cast in 
their lot to the last with their nation, and to abide 
by the stones of Zion ; but they were frequently 
discovered and seized by the savage soldiery, 
against whom they would have defended them¬ 
selves and escaped back to the city, but they were 
too weak for the struggle. “ So,” says Josephus, 
“ they were first whipped, then tortured with all 
sorts of tortures before they died, and then cruci¬ 
fied before the wall of the city.” He adds, that 
Titus greatly pitied them ; but they caught five 
hundred or more every day, and because he neither 
thought it prudent to let them go, nor could afford 
a sufficient guard ts keep them safe, he sanctioned 
it all. It would naturally be asked, Why, then, 
not slay them at once, with a speedy death } Jo- 


FIENDISH BARBARITY 


135 


sephus answers, that he hoped the Jews might, 
perhaps, yield at that sight, out of fear lest they 
might themselves afterwards be liable to the same 
cruel treatment.’’ He adds, concerning his new 
allies, patrons, friends, and companions, the Ro¬ 
mans, that out of their wrath and hatred against 
the Jews, they invented new ways of nailing them 
up, by way of jest^ when the multitude was so 
great that room was wanting for the crosses, and 
crosses for bodies. All this was superintended by 
Titus ; a wretch whom it is the fashion for histo¬ 
rians to exalt as a very model of all magnanimous 
virtues ; the emperor who, when he had done no 
good deed since morning, is said to have wept over 
a lost day ! He could look upon a spectacle like 
this, the utmost extremity of unutterable torture 
inflicted on fathers, who came forth to glean a 
handful of grass or weeds to stay the cries of their 
famishing children—sons who so adventured their 
lives to prolong for a day the existence of an aged 
mother—and, no doubt, women and children 
also; for when did Rome, pagan or papal, spare 
age or sex ? Least of all, when did she show 
mercy to a Jew ? Her blood-stained hands had 
crucified the King ; and now on the same spot, 
she crucified the subjects who, alas! had rejected 
his gentle rule, who would have delivered them 
from her, and from every foe. Not that the indi¬ 
viduals, who suffered these enormities, could, to 
any extent, have been accessory to the deed ; for 
that generation must have well nigh passed away ; 
and out of them an immense multitude had been 
brought to believe in Him. Crucifixion was a Ro¬ 
man death ; Rome was the executioner; and in 


136 


JUDJEA CAPTA. 


the day of the Lord’s vengeance against the 
Daughter of Babylon, that scene of horror will not 
be forgotten. 

The impression produced on those within the 
city was what any rational mind must have 
foreseen. The walls were thronged with the 
multitudes who came, and who brought their less 
resolute fellows, to witness what would be the 
fate of such as should fall into the hands of ene¬ 
mies who knew not what mercy meant. That 
spectacle nerved them to endure the utmost ex¬ 
tremities of suffering, famine, pestilence, and the 
sword, rather than yield themselves and their little 
ones into the hands of the Romans. Some, in¬ 
deed, there still were, who deluded themselves with 
the idle hope of finding pity among those iron le¬ 
gions ; and, in the agonies of hunger, they placed 
themselves within their grasp ; preferring, if so it 
must be, the tortures of an hour to the wasting 
death of days. Titus, however, devised a new 
species of punishment for these ; he ordered their 
hands to be cut off, and so rendering them incapa¬ 
ble of any further defensive operations, sent them 
back to the commanders, Simon and John, with 
this exhortation,—That they would now at length 
leave off their madness, and not force him To de¬ 
stroy the city; promising, that by so doing they 
should enjoy the advantage of saving their own lives, 
and preserving their fine city, and that Temple, 
which was peculiarly theirs. What confirmation 
the bleeding stumps of their ^ mangled brethren 
might add to this idle message it is hard to say. 
Titus certainly never dreamed of mercy to the 
Jews; but of course he wished to capture the city 


EFFECT ON THE JEWS. 


137 


in all its proud beauty; and to enshrine some of 
his demon-gods within the magnificent courts of the 
Lord’s house. What heart but must rejoice that 
the impious pagan w^as baffled, though, thereby, 
not one stone was left upon another of all that gor¬ 
geous and hallowed pile ! 

With all the impatience of a hungry vulture 
wheeling round its destined prey, this Titus now 
made the circuit of the city, examining his banks, 
and hastening the willing laborers. At every point 
he was assailed with tones of defiance from the 
walls. The Israelites told him, that they did well 
in preferring death to slavery j and would to the 
last persevere in resisting his bands, doing them all 
the mischief in their power. For their own city, 
they said, they had no concern, since he told them 
that they, the nation, w’ere themselves to be de¬ 
stroyed : and that God had, in the world itself, a 
nobler temple than that on Mount Moriah. To 
this they added, that, nevertheless, the Temple 
would be preserved by Him who inhabited it, who 
was still their help; and their confidence in whom, 
enabled them to laugh at all his threatenings. So 
far their words were made good, that into no ene¬ 
my’s hand was that sacred Temple given: no 
power of man did, or could, or can prevail to make 
Israel cease from being a nation before God; and 
the happy issue out of all affliction which they 
fondly hoped, in their own persons, to experience, 
is reserved for their children’s children, after many 
generations. As individuals, alas ! the Lord had 
forsaken them : as a nation. He never, never will. 

The Roman embankment was completed after 
seventeen days’ incessant labor, consisting of four 
12 * 


138 


JUD-«A CAPTA. 


great lines, the principal of which w'as against the 
tower Antonia; and here the engines were about to 
be brought, with'the certainty of speedily accom¬ 
plishing, by them, the downfall of the bulwarks, shel¬ 
tered as they would be by the banks. Meanwhile 
the Jews had prosecuted, from within, a plan of 
which the assailants little dreamed. John directed 
a mine to be carried out from the vicinity of the 
tower to the distance at which the enemy were pre¬ 
paring to erect their heavy works; and this he ceiled 
with beams of timber, to afford a temporary stabil¬ 
ity, wdiile he filled the interior wdth combustibles 
of every kind. The Romans, exulting in the com¬ 
pletion of their preparations, stood ready for the as¬ 
sault, when suddenly a subterranean fire seized on 
the treacherous foundations of their vaunted handy- 
work ; the ground clave asunder, and in that yawn¬ 
ing chasm their banks disappeared, amid a cloud of 
smoke, and ashes, and whirling dust, that for at ime 
smothered the flame ; but this, fed by the timber 
that w ith so much toil they had collected to pile 
against the royal city, speedily burst forth, in one 
broad, bright, intense sheet of glowdng fire—so 
strange, so inexplicable in its origin, that the super¬ 
stitious legions recoiled in dismay, and Rome’s 
proud w’arriors stood aghast before the terrific ap¬ 
parition. Even wdien the stratagem became evi¬ 
dent, no attempt w^as made on their part to extin¬ 
guish the flames, for they had nothing to rescue. 
The trunks of Judea’s stately trees, dragged by 
their sacrilegious hands to act against the parent 
mountain, were already ascending in sparkles of 
triumphant fire, or hurling their ignited fragments 
into the enemy’s camp. Their banks were fallen ; 


ROME BAFFLED AGAIN. 


139 


many of their murderous machines shared^the 
same fate ; and they could but scowl upon the 
Jews, and curse them by their gods, and w'het to 
the keenest edge their vengeful purposes against 
the prey thus again for a while delivered out of 
their teeth. 

In another quarter, however, the enemy had suc¬ 
ceeded in commencing their assault, causing the 
ancient wall to tremble beneath their strokes : here 
no mine had been prepared, nor was any defensive 
operation practicable, so far as the assailants could 
calculate, but again w'ere their calculations set at 
naught by the impetuous daring of the Jew^s. 
Three individuals, Tephtheus, a Galilean, Me'gas- 
sarus, and Chagiras, seeing the impression made by 
the battering-rams, seized torches, and sallying 
from the w all, ran directly up to the Roman host, 
“not,” says Josephus, “ as if they w^ere enemies, 
but friends : without fear or delay.” Rushing vio¬ 
lently through the midst of the soldiers, wdio seem¬ 
ed to have been rendered powerless by astonish¬ 
ment, and perhaps somewTat unnerved by the 
recent catastrophe of the mine, they reached the 
engines, and set them in a blaze. By this time the 
enemy had so far recovered from their strange 
panic as to assail the gallant triumvirate with sw’ord, 
spear, and dart; but in vain ; nothing moved, no¬ 
thing daunted them ; they held fast by the ma¬ 
chines, and ignited them in various places, until 
such a flame went up, as brought the Romans in 
great force from their camp to quench it ; while 
the Jews, wuth equal alacrity, hastened to the help 
of their brethren. A desperate conflict ensued, car¬ 
ried on in the very fire ; for the light hurdles that 


140 


jud-i:a capta. 


covered the engines were in a blaze, together with 
the wood-work of the machines ; and the very iron 
became heated to an intensity that rendered it dan¬ 
gerous to touch ; yet on this heated metal the heroic 
Jews maintained their grasp, while, nearly suffocated 
with dust and smoke, and no doubt unpleasantly af¬ 
fected by the scorching heat communicated to their 
iron mail, the Romans bent all their strength to 
drag away the frames of their machines from the 
contlagration. The battering-rams were the prin¬ 
cipal objects of this extraordinary contest: they 
had caused the towers of Zion’s wall to shake, 
and this fact rendered them by far the most impor¬ 
tant prize, alike to those who sought to save, and 
to those who labored to destroy. 

The conflict waxed fiercer : success inspired the 
Jews with an ardor that nothing might withstand ; 
and the Romans, confounded by the nature of the 
attack, blinded with the sparkling flames, which 
now almost surrounded them, as one engine after 
another was caught by the devouring element, at 
length retreated towards their camp. This was 
the signal for renewed efforts on the part of the 
defenders of the holy city ; they rushed down in 
greater numbers from the walls, and never pausing 
in their career until they reached the verge of the 
c >mp, fought hand to hand with the guards who 
Iriere were posted in advance. Josephus, who had 
no word of pity for the famishing sufferers, his own 
brethren tortured to death by those same ferocious 
soldiers at the rate of five hundred a day, pathetic¬ 
ally notices the hard case of the murderers, who, 
by Rome’s martial law, were compelled, on peril 
of a military execution, to hold their posts ; and 


JEWISH HEROISM. 


141 


who, therefore, had to sustain the onset of those 
fiery Jews, not daring to run away. It cannot be 
doubted that many of them fell under the impetu¬ 
ous assault ; and sympathy for them drew out re¬ 
inforcements from the panic-stricken host, whom the 
Jews also engaged, laughing to scorn alike the 
cuirass, the shield, and the spear, that vainly 
sought to withstand the power of their arms, who 
were comparatively naked. O Israel, who was 
like unto thee» when of old the Lord thy God was 
with thee, and the shout of a King was amongst 
thee ! Forsaken as thou wert, in that day of 
vengeful calamity, there were still gleams and 
flashes of a fire that once burned brightly and glo¬ 
riously, sufficient to prove what thine arm could 
have wrought, if that blessing had then been upon 
thee which caused thine enemies, that rose up 
against thee, to be smitten before thy face. “ They 
shall come out against thee one waj’’, and flee 
before thee seven ways.” 

Titus, the evil angel of Judah, commissioned to 
destroy, now arrived on the field of battle, and found 
his host hard beset in defending their own walls, in¬ 
stead of pursuing the destruction of those which 
they came to overthrow He, as usual, reproached 
them, rousing to the utmost the diabolical spirit of 
pride and vain-glory, that formed the main-spring of 
Roman action ; at the same time with his fresh 
squadron of selected w'arriors, he turned the flank of 
the Israelites, and attacked them in the rear. They 
instantly faced round, and threw themselves upon 
these new assailants ; continuing the fight with un¬ 
abated courage. Josephus acknowledges that, sur¬ 
rounded as now they were, the Jews did not 


142 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


flinch.” It is amazing to contemplate the scene ; a 
handful of half-famished men, whose days had 
been passed in weariness, their nights in watch¬ 
ing ; who had beheld their isolated city, the only 
one of all Judea’s stately bulwarks yet standing, 
encompassed by an enemy that had subdued the 
world, and already having her threefold barrier re¬ 
duced to a single line of fortifications—such a band 
as this, voluntarily forsaking their protecting wall, 
and giving battle to the whole host of the enemy, 
with Titus at their head ! How comes it that, 
while each calumnious tale recorded by the hire¬ 
ling of the foe, calculated to excite horror against 
the defenders of Jerusalem, is so preserved and cir¬ 
culated that every child has it by rote ; we scarcely 
hear of what, in any other name, w^ould be the 
theme of universal admiration and respect—the un¬ 
bounded self-devotion of those dauntless Jews ? 
Among the myriad pilgrims, who throng the holy 
city, how comes it that we hear from none of any 
search after the spot where John’s mine swallow’ed 
up the Roman banks, or w^here the three bold 
brethren fired the battering-rams, and routed the- 
Roman host, and carried the battle into the Roman 
camp ? But it is in vain to ask : the mouth of the 
Lord hath spoken a sentence of long-continued 
odium and contempt to rest upon his ancient peo¬ 
ple ; and what He had so spoken He hath so ful¬ 
filled. But another word remains to receive its full 
accomplishment; and in despite of every eflbrt that 
man may make to perpetuate it, the rebuke of his 
people will He now take away from off the face of 
all the earth. 

The battle raged long and sternly after Titus had 


FRESH EFFORTS OF THE ROMANS. 143 

assumed the command: smoke, and fire, and dust 
so confused the eyes, while a discoid of loud, fierce 
tones bewildered the hearing of the combatants, 
that all order was lost : and it is plain from the 
cautious account of Josephus, that the Romans did 
considerable execution upon each other in that con¬ 
fused melee. The banks were demolished, the en¬ 
gines damaged to a great extent; and the Jews, 
having succeeded to the utmost of their most san- 
gtwne desires, withdrew within their walls, buoyed 
up, no doubt, with hopes that, alas for Zion! were 
not to be realized. 

A council of war was called, the result of which 
was in accordance with the suggestion of Titus, 
and displays, in a striking point of view, at once 
the multitude, the strength, the resources, and 
the ardor of those who fought against Jerusalem. 
It was determined to encompass the whole city 
with a wall, carried round at a short distance 
from that which defended her ; and thus to pre¬ 
clude the possibility of escape from within, or 
of supplies from without. Josephus describes the 
soldiers as being seized with a certain divine” 
fury ; and for a specimen of that which in the 
historian’s mind was regarded as divine, we will 
give his own description of this peculiar inspira¬ 
tion. “ Each soldier was ambitious to please 
his decurion ; each decurion his centurion ; each 
centurion his tribune ; and the ambition of the 
tribunes was to please their superior commanders, 
while C<Esar himself took notice of, and rewarded 
the like contention in those commanders.” Titus, 
the invader of his country, the murderer of his kin¬ 
dred, was, indeed, the god of Josephus: Judaism 


144 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


indignantly disclaims the heartless apostate; and if, 
after all that has been culled, and all that is yet to 
be culled, from this book, Christianity chooses to 
adopt him, we can only enter our most strenuous 
protest against it, as one of the foulest blots that can 
be cast upon our most holy faith. 

Under the divine” inspiration, claimed for them 
by their eulogist, the Romans actually accomplish¬ 
ed in three days what might well have been the 
w^ork of months, and built their fatal wall. It com¬ 
menced at the camp of Titus, now pitched in front 
of the tower Antonia, and crossing the valley of the 
Kedron, ran southward along the Mount of Olives ; 
thence re-crossed the valley at Siloam ; bent round 
Zion, and returned again to the general’s camp. 
Garrisoned at convenient distances, and patrolled 
by alternate watches throughout the night, while 
by day it commanded an unbroken view of every 
stone in Jerusalem’s last fortification, this enclosure 
quenched the only surviving hope in the breasts of 
the unhappy Jews, save as many among them still 
looked for the stretching forth of that Almighty arm 
which had so often crushed the pride of Israel's 
foes, and caused their most formidable power to 
melt away in a moment. The scene that ensued, 
when no foot could pass the beleaguered wall of 
their city, when no morsel could be cropped, even 
of the rank grass and herbage that sprung up beneath 
its shadow, nourished by the human decomposition 
evermore going on, where death, in every possible 
shape, stalked abroad—the terrible reality of literal 
fulfilment, where the language of prophecy would 
seem most highly figurative—all this we will pass 
over in silence. Let those, in whose bosoms exists 


AFFLICTED AND DESOLATE. 


145 


a portion of the spirit of Edom, of Babylon, of 
thrice-accused Rome, pause on the terrible specta¬ 
cle, the outpouring of God’s wrath upon a people 
scourged beyond all others, because, beyond all 
others they were beloved and favored. We will 
not prowl the streets, nor pry into the dwellings of 
thy agonized children, O Jerusalem, when thou 
drankest at the hand of the Lord the dregs of the 
cup of his fury ; rather will we take our seat be¬ 
neath some lonely olive, on that overhanging moun¬ 
tain, and weep where Jesus wept: for the day is 
come ; thine enemies have cast a trench about thee, 
and now they compass thee round and keep thee in 
on every side; and presently they will lay thee 
even with the ground, and thy children within thee ; 
yea, they shall not leave in thee one stone upon 
another, because thou knewest not the day of thy 
visitation ’ 


IS 


CHAPTER XII. 


Of those who perished in the famine, Josephus 
records that every one of them died with their 
eyes fixed upon tlie Temple.” Their black and 
shrunken bodies were necessarily cast out, no room 
being left to bury them, and there they lay piled 
up in the valleys of Jehosaphat and of Hinnom. A 
story is then told of the merciless Titus, that must 
not be passed over : he had overruled the opinions 
of others in the council of war, who recommended 
a sudden storming of the city by the whole host, 
and carried his own project of this encompassing 
wall, on the express grounds that by so shutting in 
the inhabitants they should destroy them by famine ; 
so avoiding the hazard to themselves of a military 
assault, and hastening the inevitable fall of the de- 
populated city. This is recorded by Josephus, in 
the preceding page to that in which he tells how 
Titus, in going his rounds along those valleys, see¬ 
ing them choked up with dead bodies, and thick 
streams ofx putrefaction rolling over the ground, ut¬ 
tered a groan : and spreading out his hands to hea¬ 
ven, called God to witness that this was not his 
doing. Unhappy wretch !’ had he reluctantly ful¬ 
filled his dire commission, had he even mingled 
with its terrible offices a touch of pity, employing 
the unbounded influence that he exercised over his 
army to restrain, in some measure, the savage 


A SOLEMN CONTRAST. 


147 


wantonness of their barbarity, some credit might 
be given to this burst of feeling, as the genuine ex¬ 
pression of regret at what he could not wholly pre¬ 
vent : but we have seen him as he w^as, even when 
decked out by his fulsome flatterer, whose utmost 
art could not wholly conceal the hideous features of 
his sanguinary character; and if this exclamation 
re<illy escaped his lips, if the obtestation was address¬ 
ed, not to one of the Roman demons, but to the 
God of Israel, surely it was wrung forth by some 
terrible, though but momentary vision of the fu¬ 
ture, when He, whose holy presence once made 
that mount so glorious, shall call to a fearful ac¬ 
count those of every age, and of every form of 
worship, who have found their own pleasure in 
helping forward the affliction of Israel. 

In the judgment of that day, many a mighty 
prince, and potentate, and pontiff, shall stand side 
by side with Titus, to receive a doom, aggravated 
in proportion to the light enjoyed by each ; and this 
we must concede, that the blind and barbarous pa¬ 
gan may advance a mitigating plea untenable by 
many others. When he came up against them, 
they were still a'mighty and a warlike people, en¬ 
closed by towers and battlements, and dwelling in 
fortresses by nature almost impregnable. He as¬ 
sailed not, nor opposed them, as a poor w'eak, scat¬ 
tered remnant, spread abroad over the whole earth, 
not one spot of which they could call their own : he 
pursued them not with that Bible in his hand, or 
with the knowledge of it in his mind, wdiich declares 
the love of God unto them from of old, and his 
future purposes of everlasting mercy on them. He 
slaughtered them not with the faith of Christ oH 


148 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


his lips; nor coveted their Holy City that he might 
make it the seat of foul idolatry in the name of 
Him to whom all idolatry is an abomination. To' 
the stern Roman murderer must belong the judg¬ 
ment without mercy denounced on him who hath 
showed no mercy. But what shall be said to the 
herd of kings and emperors and popes, who in 
hypocritical wickedness, or sinful ignorance, have 
trodden down the remnant of God’s suffering peo¬ 
ple in the name of Him whose law can only be 
fulfilled by love ; and who has taught us, before 
all others, to love the Jew ? 

But to return. Notwithstanding the tender com¬ 
miseration of their general, we are told that the 
Romans were very joyful ; and that having great 
abundance of provision from Syria, and from the 
neighboring provinces, they would bring and 
spread it out near the wall, in the sight of the starv¬ 
ing, dying, Jews, by such a horrible refinement of 
cruelty to aggravate their sufferings. But it pro¬ 
duced no visible effect; the thought of jdelding 
never seems to have entered their minds ; and Ti¬ 
tus, impatient at the protracted defence, set his fol¬ 
lowers to work in reconstructing embankments over 
against the tower of Antonia, the key to the whole 
city. This was not easily done, for the trees around 
Jerusalem had already fallen under the Roman axe, 
and yielded fuel to the conflagrations of the daring 
Jews. However, they managed to collect a suffi¬ 
cient number by desolating the country at a wider 
range ; and thus, in barbarous ignorance, while ful¬ 
filling the doom long before denounced on the Lord’s 
heritage, they also inflicted that of sterility on the 


MORE ENORMITIES. 


149 


land, which still lieth desolate in the enjoyment of 
her long, long sabbaths. 

A plot was laid by an inferior commander named 
Judas, to deliver the tower into the enemy’s hands ; 
they, however, could not believe that in reality a 
Jew was so disposed, and fearing a stratagem, neg¬ 
lected to avail themselves of the offer until the 
spectacle of the execution of the intended betrayers 
by Simon, who had discovered the conspiracy, and 
who threw the dead bodies down among them, too 
late convinced the Romans of what they had lost. 
Meantime Josephus, taking his turn as a patrol round 
the city, was wounded in the head by a stone cast 
at him from the walls ; and the joy and exultation 
that ensued on the supposition of his death—for he 
had been rescued and borne away senseless by some 
of his pagan allies, just as the Jews thought to seize 
on him—prove in what abhorrence his treason was 
held. This incident also, no doubt, sharpened the 
edge of his hostility against his brethren, for he ex¬ 
patiates largely on the alleged crimes of their 
leaders, and of the whole body of the seditious,” as 
he terms all who preferred death to the surrender of 
their city. We pass this over, to relate one more 
instance of what they had to expect who deserted, 
and threw themselves upon the honor, humanity, 
or good faith of the Romans. 

Some unhappy deserters, having made up their 
minds to so desperate a venture, and knowing that 
gold was the surest key to Roman favor, swallowed 
as much as they could of the precious, but now in 
Jerusalem useless metal, which they hoped to turn 
to good account among the enemy. The sequel 
may be readily anticipated: a discovery of the con- 
13* 


150 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


trivance in one instance led to the immediate rip¬ 
ping open of all who had come for protection; and 
Josephus says, that in one night two thousand of 
these poor creatures were thus horribly butchered. 
They were chiefly Syrians ; and had escaped by 
jumping down from the wall, with great stones in 
their hands, as though about to make an attack on 
the enemy; to whom they ran for protection when 
beyond the reach of the Jewish darts. Great num¬ 
bers died at once, through the ravenous hunger that 
led them to devour whatever was placed before 
them ; their famished state rendering such reple¬ 
tion presently fatal; they were less to be commi¬ 
serated than the survivors, reserved to a most dread¬ 
ful death, under the hands of the noble Romans, 
whom our Christian youth are instructed to regard 
as rare models of all that is grand and glorious in 
man ! Josephus, it is true, fastens the chief guilt 
of this enormity on the Arabians and Syrians; but 
he admits that the Roman soldiers were implicated 
also; and Titus was obliged to menace with death 
such as should be found guilty of it: not so much 
for the barbarity of the thing, as because it showed 
that their allies were enriching themselves at their 
own pleasure ; but his prohibition was of little 
avail; the practice continued, and became the 
means of checking the desertion. 

John, it appears, who had possession of the 
Temple, now committed what Josephus describes 
as a horrible sacrilege : he took some of the sacred 
stores of wine and oil, and distributed them among 
the perishing people. Whether this was or was not 
a justifiable proceeding is not for us to determine : 
under an emergency not approaching within a degree 


INTENSE FAMINE. 151 

of comparison with this, David took and distributed 
to his followers the bread which was only lawful for 
the priests to eat. He did so with the full consent 
of the presiding priest, and no censure is recorded. 
John also is stated to have melted down for his 
own use some of the golden vessels presented by 
Gentile princes to the Temple: what benefit he 
expected to derive from it, when no sum could pur¬ 
chase a mouthful of bread, it is hard to say; but the 
pious indignation of Josephus is so kindled by it, 
that he says, if the Romans had made any longer 
delay in coming against these villains, the city would 
have been swallowed up by an earthquake, or else 
been overflown with water, or destroyed by such 
thunder as Sodom perished by. He also relates that 
the deaths by starvation among the poor became so 
numerous, that they were no longer able to throw 
them over the wall, but laid them on heaps in large 
houses, and shut them up. He says, after enume¬ 
rating some dreadful effects of famine, “ When the 
Romans barely heard all this, they commiserated 
their case ; while the seditious, who saw it also, did 
not repent, but suffered the same distress to come 
upon themselves. ” As to the extent of Roman com¬ 
miseration, we leave that for the reader to deter¬ 
mine ; the simple fact, as regarding the Jews, was, 
that they preferred death by hunger to the horrible 
tortures inflicted by these Romans on all whom they 
took captive : tortures proportioned to the courage 
and constancy of an enemy which, had they possess¬ 
ed one atom of the virtues imputed to them, would 
have commanded their respect. Added to this prefer¬ 
ence was a fond hope that the Lord would yet in¬ 
terpose, even in their uttermost extremity, on behalf 


152 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


of the city and the people so long called by his 
name. 

We now approach the last sad scenes of this dire¬ 
ful tragedy, and must strive to repress the bitter 
indignation that will rise while following the cool 
description given by this apostate Jew of events 
that it is scarcely possible to contemplate even in the 
faintest outline that can be sketched. We must bear 
in mind that but for the almost miraculous harden¬ 
ing of this man’s heart against his own brethren, 
and the utter alienation of his spirit from the land 
of his fathers, in defence of which he had once 
fought gallantly, and the prostration of his every 
feeling of independence under the heel of a Pagan 
whose favor he gained by the most grovelling syco¬ 
phancy,—but for this, Josephus would have died 
in the battle, a champion for Israel, and we should 
possess no record whatever of what is now being 
brought with singular force to all men’s minds. A 
Roman historian would have related it just as any 
other war, siege, conquest, and desolation carried on 
by the great and terrible Beast is recorded ; and we 
could not have associated with the tale those touch¬ 
ing minutiae that identify it wholly with the city of 
our God ; the race of Abraham ; and the awful pre¬ 
dictions that were then so marvellously fulfilled. 

Pestilence, as a necessary consequence, followed 
upon the havoc made by famine. From the dead 
bodies without the walls, not only the numbers cast 
over them from the city, but the thousands of vic¬ 
tims murdered by the cowardly Romans, an efHuvia 
must have arisen sufficient to engender disease 
throughout the whole region: but when to this we 
add the ghastly piles of dead enclosed in Zion’s 


FEARFUL DESOLATION. 


153 


desolate palaces, together with those who lay un¬ 
buried and trampled down in every street of the 
city, now, alas ! too truly and in too many ways, 
“ the rebellious city, the bloody city,” we may con¬ 
ceive the effects, in that warm climate, as being hor¬ 
rible indeed. What must that knowledge of the 
Roman barbarity have been that could render death 
by‘hunger in a hideous charnel-house preferable to 
any chance of life from a successful foe ! 

Titus now hastened the completion of his em¬ 
bankment, heretofore frustrated by the enterprising 
determination of the besieged ; now securely per¬ 
fected under shelter of the newly-built wall. To 
procure timber for the work was a difficult matter, 
requiring excursions far into the surrounding dis¬ 
tricts ; for all that lay near had already been de¬ 
nuded of its groves. The narrator thus describes 
the prospect, and in so doing accounts for the pre¬ 
sent appearance of that land, so unlike the scene 
presented to the mind’s eye of him who has only 
known the Jerusalem and Judaea of the Bible : for 
that land will not, cannot, shall not yield her fruit¬ 
fulness, nor resume the verdant robes of her pris¬ 
tine beauty for any but the seed of Jacob. While 
they are outcast and despised, she lies barren, de¬ 
solate, and bare. While they mourn, she will not 
smile ; neither will she exchange her wilderness 
garment for that of the garden of Eden, until from 
the highest heaven the promised word shall go 
forth : “ But ye, 0 mountains of Israel, ye shall 
shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to 
my people Israel; for they are at hand to come. 
For behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, 
and ye shall be tilled and sown : and I will multi- 


154 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


ply upon you all the house of Israel, even all of it; 
and the cities shall be inhabited and the waste shall 
be builded : and I will multiply upon you man 
and beast; and they shall increase and bring forth 
fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, 
and will do better unto you than at your begin¬ 
nings : and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” 
O God of Israel—the covenant-keeping God! 
Redeemer of Jacob! hasten the fulfilment of this 
blessed word, that we, even we, now and in our own 
day, may behold thy return to Zion with mercy ! 

Thus writes the eye-witness of Judaia’s over¬ 
throw : “Truly the very view of the country was 
a melancholy thing ; for those places which were 
before adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, 
were now become a desolate countr}'^ every way ; 
and its trees were all cut down. Nor could any 
foreigner that had formerly seen Judaea, and the 
most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it 
as a desert, but lament and mourn sadly at so great 
a change, for the war had laid all the signs of beau¬ 
ty quite waste. Nor if any one that had known 
the place before had come on a sudden to it now, 
would he have known it again ; but though he 
were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired 
for it notwithstanding.” How illustrative is this 
remarkably simple and artless description of the 
word that God spake by Jeremiah : “ All that pass 
by clap their hands at thee ; they hiss and wag 
their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying. Is 
this the city that men call the perfection of beauty, 
the joy of the whole earth .?” 

The completion of the banks occasioned not less 
uneasiness to the Romans than to the Jews ; for 


THE DEFENCE LANGUISHES. 


155 


while the latter saw a formidable step gained to¬ 
wards the reduction of their city, the former were in 
perpetual dread of some new exploit by which their 
work might again be destroyed ; and such destruc¬ 
tion would now be an irreparable loss, since they had 
exhausted every remaining resource in the erection 
of thjpse last banks. Moreover, “ they found,” says 
Josephus, ‘Uhe fighting men of the Jews to be not 
at all mollified among such their sore afflictions, 
while they had themselves perpetually less and less 
hopes of success; and their banks were forced to 
yield to the stratagems of the enemy ; their engines 
to the firmness of their wall; and their closest fights 
to the boldness of their attacks. And, what was 
the greatest discouragement of all, they found the 
Jews’ courageous souls to be superior to the multi¬ 
tude of the miseries they were under by their sedi 
tion, their famine, and the war itself.” 

But the decree had gone forth, and Jerusalem 
must fall. The first indication of approaching suc¬ 
cess to the enemy seems to have been an apparent 
falling off in the ardor and unanimity of the sally ; 
for when John led his forces out with torches to as¬ 
sail these banks, they advanced in detached parties ; 
Josephus says, After a slow manner, timorously ; 
and, to say all in a word, without a Jewish cour¬ 
age.” The probability is, that they were so ex¬ 
hausted by famine, by incessant fatigue, intermina¬ 
ble watching, and the dreadful forms in which death 
had hourly cut down their dearest connexions 
around them, that the physical strength was want¬ 
ing to manifest that unsubdued courage. However, 
their comparative languor infused new resolution 
into the desponding Romans: they armed them- 


156 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


selves in their most complete mail, and by forming 
a compact body, an unbroken line, before the 
banks, they covered them effectually; at the same 
time bringing their gigantic slinging machinery 
to bear upon the Jews, while yet under the wails 
of the city, sweeping them down with darts and 
stones, and great fragments of rock, until, disheart- 
'ened by the strength of the living phalanx before 
them, and the loss of so niany comrades, the Jews 
retreated without accomplishing anything. 

This fired the Romans to new efforts; they 
brought up their engines, and assailed the tower of 
Antonia, not only by their means, but by working 
away to undermine its foundations with their iron 
implements ; covering themselves, as best they 
could, with their shields, from the darts and other 
missiles cast down upon them by the defenders. 
Four massive stones were in this way removed 
from the base of the tower, when night put a tem¬ 
porary end to the conflict; but before dawn both 
parties were startled by an unexpected event; for, 
just where John had before carried out his mine to 
destroy the first banks, the wall, weakened perhaps 
by that proceeding, and now much shaken by the 
battering-rams, fell to the ground, A joyful sur¬ 
prise to the enemy ! They hastened to make good 
an entrance at the breach, and great was their dis¬ 
appointment on finding their way barred by a sec¬ 
ond wall, which the Jews had secretly built in case 
of such an event. 

To scale this new wall was pronounced an easy 
exploit, yet not one of Rome’s warriors durst take 
the lead in it. Titus therefore considered it a fitting 
juncture for one of his orations, and assembling the 


RETROSPECTION. 


157 


flower of his army he addressed them at great length, 
urging all the wonted heathen arguments, and 
making many admissions of the courage, constancy, 
and perseverance exhibited by the Jews, whom 
he, of course, represented as being infinitely be¬ 
neath them. He ended his speech in these words: 
—“'As for that person who first mounts the wall, 
I should blush for shame if I did not make him to 
be envied of others by those rewards I would be¬ 
stow upon him. If such an one escape with his 
life, he shall have the command of others that are 
now but his equals, although it be true also that 
the greatest rewards will accrue to such as die in 
the attempt.” 

But all the eloquence of their popular leader, his 
promises of reward, his labored incitement of their 
every ferocious passion, availed not—not one Ro¬ 
man hero was found valiant enough to lead so per¬ 
ilous an enterprise. A S^^rian, contemptibly mean 
in aspect, weak in body, and despised as one defi¬ 
cient in courage, stepped forth, and volunteered to 
head the storming party. Often, in the old time, 
had the famous generals and mighty kings of Syria 
advanced against Israel, and fled away discomfited 
by the far mightier w’arriors whom the Lord gird¬ 
ed to the battle. The very name recalls many a 
stirring scene in sacred history, and among them 
that magnificent though momentary vision of things 
unseen by the veiled eye of mortality, when, terri¬ 
fied by the proud array of the Syrian army, Elisha’s 
servant almost forgot the impregnable shield spread 
over his inspired master, and was permitted to look 
upon the heavenly host that filled the surrounding 
heights with horses and chariots of fire. Alas 1 
14 


158 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


that shield was now withdrawal! from the Lord’s 
mountain, and the meanest of a degenerate Syrian 
race might venture to attack the holy place of the 
Tabernacle of the Most High! The incident, 
merely noticed by Josephus as a remarkable in¬ 
stance of unexpected boldness in a person gene¬ 
rally despised, is one of deep, sad interest, when 
viewed as tending to contrast the past with the 
present, the days of Jerusalem’s glorious dominion 
with those of her chastisement and consuming 
plagues. 

Strange to say, only eleven men of all the Ro¬ 
man host could muster sufficient resolution to fol¬ 
low this Sabinus, who, after a desperate struggle, 
succeeded in mounting the wall at their head. The 
Jews, not supposing but that the Roman army were 
all pouring in upon them, fled; but returning im¬ 
mediately, they slew the daring Syrian, dashed 
three of his companions to pieces in a moment, and 
so wounded the remaining eight that they were 
with difficulty dragged back by their comrades be¬ 
low, and carried to the camp. 

Two days afterwards, twelve foot-soldiers of the 
vanguard, two horsemen, a standard-bearer, and a 
trumpeter, secretly approached, under cover of 
night, or in the morning twilight, and clambering 
over the ruins of the fallen w'^all, reached the tower 
of Antonia, surprised the first guard, whom they 
slew in their sleep, and having gained the wall, 
sounded their trumpet. Fatal note ! 

The Jews, roused from their short repose, started 
and fled, for they believed that the whole host was 
upon them. These, electrified by the well-known 
signal, sprang to their arms, and ere the besieged 


FOR THE TEMPLE ! 


159 


had time to rally or to reflect, the host was indeed 
upon them. Titus first, and after him his selected 
band, ascended the tower, whence they beheld the 
sacred courts of God’s Temple spread beneath, and 
the people of Israel fleeing to his sanctuary. They 
pursued, and once more the lion heart of Judah 
was roused. Should the blood-stained enemy pol¬ 
lute the hallowed spot ? No : as one man they 
turned, and never had the battle raged between 
them as that day it raged,—the Romans pressing 
onward over the holy mount, the Jews, as a living 
rock, hurling back each wave of war as it swelled 
and rolled upon them. There was no dart thrown, 
no stone flung, no engine brought to bear on ehhe' 
side in that tremendous struggle ; sword in har.tf 
they fought, mixed in one mass of mutual slaugh¬ 
ter. From the camp reinforcements perpetually 
came up through the now unguarded tower ; from 
the 'city of David new champions, roused even 
from the bed of death, and staggering under the 
weight of their own weapons, rushed on and on, 
and flung themselves into the fight, for the prize of 
that terrible contest was the Temple. 

Judah prevailed ; Rome could not sustain the 
battle, unaided by her own infernal machinery of 
catapult, and ram, and crossbow. The enemy re¬ 
treated, driven step by step from the sacred 
ground, and Titus was glad to fortify himself where, 
on yester-eve, he little expected so soon to gain a 
footing, in the tower of Antonia^ The battle had 
lasted from'the ninth hour of the night to the 
seventh hour of the day, and both parties had put 
forth the utmost of their strength, their energy, and 
courage. The reverse sustained by the Jews was 


160 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


indeed terrible, and an omen of speedy defeat, for 
Antonia was the very key-stone of their arch; but 
the Temple had been assailed—the Temple was 
saved ; and in the gladness of their hearts for that 
rescue they almost overlooked the greatness of 
their losses. 

While thus they exulted, a new assailant ap¬ 
peared in the person of a centurion, a man of great 
bodily prowess and extraordinary daring, who 
seems to have been desirous of wiping off from 
his owm name the blot of that pusillanimity which 
could not but attach to those who had shrunk from 
assailing the slender wall recently erected by John. 
This Julian, seeing the Romans flying in disorder 
from their pursuers, leaped out from the tower, into 
which they W'ere pressing for shelter, and by the 
vigor of his unexpected onset turned the Jew^s 
back. Clad in full panoply, and possessed, as it 
would appear, with the fury of a maniac, he rushed 
into the crowed of mingled soldiers and citizens, and 
committed much slaughter, until, having reached 
the corner of the inner court of the Temple, his 
career was abruptly stopped. 

We have here a specimen of the theology of Jo¬ 
sephus wTich must not be passed over. As a Jew, 
he might well have thought that the God whom his 
fathers worshipped had once more interposed on be¬ 
half of that hallowed spot; but in true pagan style, 
he says of the Roman pursuer, “ However, he 
was himself pursued by Fate^ which it was not 
possible that he, who was but a mortal man, 
should escape.” The inner court of the Temple, 
which he had now gained, was curiously paved 
with polished marble, and on this his feet, cased as 


JULIAN THE CENTURION 


161 


they were in shoes studded thickly with iron nails, 
soon slipped. He fell on his back, and was imme¬ 
diately surrounded by the Jews, who, after a long 
and terrible struggle, succeeded in despatching 
him. From the tower the Romans beheld this 
unequal contest, but none among them ventured 
to their champion’s ajd. The few stragglers lin¬ 
gering outside were presently attacked and driven 
in by the Jews, who thus remained masters of the 
sacred precincts to their utmost boundary. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


On the seventeenth day of Tamuz the daily sac¬ 
rifice ceased. Men were wanting to offer it; so 
fearfully had the sacred order been thinned by the 
ravages of famine, pestilence and the sword. It 
was a day of mourning and bitter lamentation in 
Jerusalem, a day of gloominess and thick darkness 
to those who had until then refused to believe that 
the God of Israel would indeed give over his heri¬ 
tage to the spoiler. In the midst of the wreck, or 
just three years and a half from the commence¬ 
ment of the war by Vespasian, did the prince that 
came to destroy the city and the sanctuary cause 
the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,” exactly as 
the angel who spake to Daniel had predicted ;* and 
yet, alas ! Israel did not perceive, would not con¬ 
sider, that in this there was a testimony given to 
the fact that Messiah had already been cut 
off. Who shall tell the anguish of mind with 
which the Jews beheld their altar destitute, 
its divinely-appointed ordinance rendered imprac¬ 
ticable, its multitudes of ministering priests di¬ 
minished to a feeble few, w^ho, with garments 
rent, and dust upon their heads, bewailed a 
calamity the possible occurrence of w'hich had 
seemed to them an idle dream } We do not drink 


* Dan. ix. 25, 27., 




The famished'woman of Jerusalem achno'wledging her 
dreadful secret. P- 163. 
































































































































A PARLEY. 


163 


sufficiently deep of the spirit of Judaism, such as 
it appears in the Holy Scriptures, to realize, 
even as we ought to do, the bitterness of this cup 
of wrath and wo. Edom-like, we have accus¬ 
tomed ourselves to stand on the other side, “ in 
the day that the strangers carried away his forces, 
and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots 
upon Jerusalem.” Yes, we take up the history, 
and look upon our brother’s affliction in the day of 
his calamity with the cold observance of those 
who have no concern in his sorrows, instead of so 
making his cause our own that we should be con¬ 
strained to cry mightily unto the Lord, yea, to give 
him no rest until He turn away his fierce anger, and 
pardon his heritage, and gather his people, and 
once more establish and make Jerusalem a praise in 
the whole earth. 

The daily sacrifice ceased, and Titus, prompted 
no doubt by his crafty ally, Avho knew full well 
into what consternation the fearful event would 
throw the Jews, deputed him, Josephus, to demand 
a parley, and to make the most of the crisis for 
subduing the stubborn spirits who extorted so 
heavy a price of time, and labor, and blood, from 
their cruel invaders for every advantage gained. 
The orator began with a mock ; he implored the 
people, using at the same time the sacred language, 

to spare their city, to prevent the fire that was 
about to seize upon the Temple, and to offer the 
usual sacrifices to God therein.” Deep sadness of 
heart kept the afflicted Jews silent for awhile ; but 
they pre.sently broke into keen reproaches against 
him for his base desertion of his country, and the 
daring impiety of his present course in coming up 


164 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


against the Temple of the Lord as an enemy. To 
this Josephus replied in a strain of railing accusa¬ 
tion and bitter taunts that it is almost marvellous 
that he should have left on record. He also ad¬ 
duced, as a scriptural example, something which 
is nowhere to be found in the Scriptures ; and 
after protesting his truth as a Jew, acknowledges 
himself deserving of all the reproaches that had 
been cast upon him, because he was then acting in 
opposition to Fate by striving to save those whom 
God had condemned. He proceeded to show that 
prophecy was about to be fulfilled in their utter 
destruction; and certainly, however hard he might 
have studied for language the best suited at once 
to exasperate and to harden them, he could not 
have succeeded better in producing an harangue to 
that effect. He wept, and groaned, and sobbed, so 
that, as he tells us, the Romans could not but won¬ 
der at and pity him, while the Jewish garrison 
were stirred up to greater indignation, and strove 
to lay hold on him. Some few, however, desert¬ 
ed on the strength of his persuasions, and these, he 
says, were kindly received by Titus, and sent away 
to a small city called Gophna, with many promises 
of future “favor. Their entire disappearance, mean¬ 
while, naturally gave rise to a belief within the 
city that they had been murdered like their prede¬ 
cessors ; and this conviction deterred others from 
following their example, until they were recalled 
and paraded round the walls under the escort of 
Josephus, to add their persuasions to his that the 
city might be quietly surrendered to the enemy. 
The consequence of this address from several of 
their own high priests and nobles, was strange, if 


PREPARATIONS FOR STORMING. 


165 


Josephus reports it truly ; for, according to him, the 
people who were just before mourning bitterly the 
cessation of their daily sacrifice, suddenly attacked 
the Temple itself with darts, stones, javelins, and 
whatever their engines could hurl against it. A 
great slaughter is described as taking place at the 
same time within the holy courts, and that of Jews, 
by Jewish hands. The story is inexplicable, un¬ 
less some plot was even then ripening among one 
party to deliver up the Temple to the Romans. 
Titus was exceedingly enraged at the proceeding, 
which renders this conjecture more probable ; and 
he addressed a vehement remonstrance to the as¬ 
sailing party, headed by John ; but this producing 
no eflect, he resolved on storming, that very night, 
the holy place which he professed himself so anx¬ 
ious to save. The near view that his present posi¬ 
tion commanded of its costly magnificence no doubt 
rendered him doubly solicitous to secure so pre¬ 
cious a spoil before its beauty could be marred, or 
its value lessened, by the hands of those whose 
stern resolve it was that he should never grasp 
it. 

Seated on the highest turret of the tower of An¬ 
tonia, the Roman prince looked on while the very 
flower of his host, chosen men arrayed under chosen 
leaders, to the number of several thousands, as 
many as the narrow space would permit to act with 
freedom, stole, under cover of the night, to sur¬ 
prise in their sleep the guards of the Temple. 
They found them wakeful, watchful, and prepared 
to spring upon them sword in hand. A most des¬ 
perate battle ensued, which lasted from the ninth 
hour of the night to the fifth hour of the day j the 


166 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


Romans being loudly cheered on by their comrades 
and their general, on the summit of the tovverf 
while the Jews fought with undiminished courage 
and determination. No advantage was gained ; 
blood was shed like water, and the courts of the 
Temple again wore the appearance of a slaughter¬ 
house ; but not a foot of its precincts was ceded to 
the foe. They retired to the tower: and the Jews 
set their guard as before, in grim, and ghastly, and 
resolute array. Famine had wasted their flesh, 
and wrinkled their skins, and blackened their coun¬ 
tenances : sorrow had deepened every furrow, and 
despair was striving to unman the heart that never 
shrunk from peril; but the tread that involuntarily 
pressed the mangled corpse of a parent, a son, or a 
bosom friend, was firm and unfaltering still. The 
city of David and the mountain of the Lord’s house, 
were yet under their keeping ; and what Hebrew 
heart could flinch from guarding such a trust ? 

Titus, meanwhile, had kept his army employed in 
demolishing the foundations of fort Antonia, so as to 
form a broad and easy passage from the camp with¬ 
out to the court of the Gentiles, the outermost en¬ 
closure of the Temple. Here, opposite the northern 
and western fronts, and at the angle, and over 
against the cloisters, they raised embankments, 
with great toil and difficulty; for the distance from 
which they had to fetch wood was fatiguing, and 
the opposition of the Jews incessant. No stratagem, 
no feat of daring, was left untried to obstruct these 
works, and to harass where they could not slay 
the artificers. Sallies, bolder than before, were 
constantly planned ; and the horses of the Romans 
seized while their masters were fetching wood, or 


STRATAGEMS. 


167 


foiaging lor provender. They also, to interrupt 
the communication, set fiie to the north-west clois¬ 
ter, where ii extended to the tower, and gradually 
destroyed much of this portion of the sacred edi¬ 
fices, as a means of better protecting, by such 
isolation, the Temple itself. No day passed without 
skirmishing, few without hard lighting; and this at 
least may be said, that Jerusalem, forsaken of her 
God, and garrisoned by a band of dying men, proved 
a harder conquest to the Roman than ever he had 
essayed to grasp. So wonderful are the natural 
defences of that glorious city—-such as she was 
while her own trines possessed her as their inherit¬ 
ance ; so great was the strength of her ancient 
ramparts, the wall that Israel’s monarchs first raised, 
and the pious Nehemiah repaired, and round which 
the Lord had spread the shield of his omnipotence, 
until now that the time was come to lay her in the 
dust, that the baffled enemy had long ere then 
yielded to depair, and withdrawn from the hopeless 
enterprise, if the mysterious influence had not pre¬ 
vailed, which told him that he must yet succeed. 

Among the stratagems practised by the Jews to 
drive the soldiers from their work upon the banks, 
was the following. The western cloister of the 
court of the Gentiles was over-against one of these 
new embankments, and here the Jews brought 
bitumen and pitch, and various dry combustible 
materials, with which they filled the space between 
the beams and roof. Having done this, they feigned 
a sudden retreat, as though suffering under great 
fatigue, and thus induced the Romans to mount the 
cloisters and pursue them. When a large number 
had ascended by ladders, so that the buildings were 


168 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


nearly filled and covered with them, the Jews set 
fire to the train: and by this manoeuvre they slew 
the greater part of them; for such as escaped the 
flames, by leaping down within, fell into their 
hands, while those who cast themselves in the 
other direction, w'ere killed by the depth of the fall. 
Many perished by fire, and some by their own 
swords. Josephus, in true Roman style, especially 
commends the suicides; and laments, with his 
wonted adherence to the alien cause, over all who 
fell in fighting against Jerusalem, 

It was at this period that the event took place 
which marks the calamities as of the Lord’s 
especial inflicting, since the prediction was thereby 
fulfilled that Moses had recorded. Josephus takes 
notice of this prophecy, while relating its awful 
accomplishment, but he names the w'oman, Mary, 
the daughter of Eleazar, as being eminent for her 
family and her wealththus identifying the ten¬ 
der and delicate woman among you, which would 
not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the 
ground for delicateness and tenderness.” The sad 
tale is well known: she killed and roasted her 
babe, ate a portion, and concealed the remainder. 
Not one jot or one tittle failed of all the Lord had 
foreshown. Josephus puts a speech into her 
mouth, evidently his own invention, in which she 
throws the guilt of her deed more upon her own 
suffering nation than upon the Romans, and gar¬ 
nishes the fearful tale with his accustomed licence ; 
but the simple fact is enough. 

The month of Ab was now come : on the tenth 
day of that month had Jerusalem formerly fallen 
before the arms of the Babylonian king ; and this 


CONTINUED ASSAULTS. 


169 


day was always observed as one of fasting, of hu¬ 
miliation, and bitter mourning among the Jews. 
From the second to the eighth day, a continued but 
ineflfectual assault had been made upon the walls of 
the inner court, by means of the usual engines: 
on the eighth, a nev.^ bank was completed, and 
Titus ordered up the battering-ram, but even this 
proved too weak for the purpose. The stones that 
composed the wall were of such enormous size, and 
the strength of those gigantic bulwarks so prodi¬ 
gious, that the only process to which they yielded 
was the tedious, and almost impracticable one, of 
removing them piece-meal by manual labor. In 
this way the soldiers succeeded in taking down the 
external foundations of the northern gate ; but they 
found themselves foiled by the solidity of the inner 
portion, which upheld it as firmly as before.* Thus 
baffled, and despairing of success by any other 
means than storming the place sword in hand, the 
Romans brought ladders, and fixed them against 
the cloisters, to which they began to mount. Thus 
far they had proceeded without molestation from 
the Jews ; but no sooner did the Roman helms 
appear above the level of that sacred enclosure 
than an onset was made from within, which hurled 
them back, and slew or cast them headlong, en¬ 
cumbered as they were with their heavy mail, and 
before they had time to advance their shields. A 
Ions: ladder, on which these assailants clustered like 

O' , , 

bees, was often seized by the Jews at its summit, 
and flung violently down, crushing the soldiers in 
its fall. The very ensigns, the proud eagle stand¬ 
ards of Rome, were so endangered, that those wlio 
bare could scarcely preserve them from being cap- 
15 


170 


.jud.i:a capta. 


tured ; and the engines, which with so much laboi 
they had brought to bear upon the walls, were ac¬ 
tually taken by the people of Israel. It was a sig¬ 
nal defeat, and a marvellous one. 

The Romans now brought fire, and applied it to 
the gates that were within their reach. The silver 
that covered them was heated until it ignited the 
wood; and by this means a body of flame suddenly 
burst forth, catching on either side the cloisters from 
which the enemy had been repulsed. There was a 
natural reluctance to destroy what would, in its un¬ 
injured state, be a most costly prize ; and this led 
the Romans to reserve, as a last resource, the ap¬ 
plication of the destructive element. Dismay 
seized on the unhappy Jews, when they beheld 
their holy edifices blazing around them, and no 
effort was made to stay the progress of the confla¬ 
gration, which prevailed during that and the fol¬ 
lowing day: the strength of the building being 
such, that they could only be destroyed by the 
very tardy progress of fire continually renewed 
and rekindled. 

The court of the Gentiles was to be finally con¬ 
tested, in the midst of these smoking ruins. On 
the northern and the western sides it was defence¬ 
less, the Romans being now able to pour in upon 
it, over the broken charred fragments of its lofty 
and beauteous fabrics. Titus issued orders to 
quench the remaining fire, while he summoned his 
six principal commanders to a consultation, touch¬ 
ing the destruction or preservation of the Temple 
Their voices were for the former, but his wish of 
course prevailed over their opinions: and he re¬ 
solved to spare the magnificent trophy, as a proud 


THE OUTER COURT TAKEN. 


171 


monument of pagan triumph, and to be the dese¬ 
crated fane of some demon-god. Strict orders 
v/ere, therefore, given to save the Temple unhurt; 
and for the work before them a careful selection 
was made of the bravest and best warriors from 
the whole host; and to these was committed the 
task of making their way over the still smoulder¬ 
ing ruins, to quench them wholly, and to take pos¬ 
session of the court of the Gentiles. This was 
done: so weary and dispirited were the Jews, that 
they offered no resistance while the Romans set 
their guard, in formidable force, within the long- 
contested wall; but on the following morning they 
rallied again, and in a desperate onset slew many 
of the foe; they would have driven them from 
that hard-won ground, had not Titus, wh© over¬ 
looked everything from his lofty post, sent rein¬ 
forcements sufficient to repulse the Jews, who 
were compelled to retreat; and, finally, to fortify 
themselves in the second court—the court of 
Israel. So closed the day. 

“ I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and 
He said. Smite the lintel of the door that the posts 
may shake ; and cut them in the head all of them; 
and I will slay the last of them with the sword: 
he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he 
that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.”"* 

Terrible is the Lord in his judgments, righteous 
in his dealings towards the children of men. Our 
hearts will bleed, and our eyes will overflow, when 
contemplating the dire visitation of wrath on his 
people, his own peculiar treasure, Judah his in- 


* Amos ix. 1. 


172 


JDD^A CAPTA. 


heritance, and the Mount Zion which he loved; 
but we must not forget that He who doth not 
afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, 
who calls judgment his strange work, and de¬ 
lights in mercy—that He it was who compassed 
Jerusalem with armies, and poured out upon her 
the fierceness of that indignation which never 
burns without a cause. Turning to the touching 
services appointed for that day, and observed by all 
Israel in every part of the world, in weeping, and 
mourning, and lamentation; in fasting, and in dust 
and ashes, in darkness and in prostration, no less 
of body than of soul, we find a memorial that speaks 
volumes, as to the spirit in which the children of 
Israel in our day review those scenes. Too little 
do Gentiles know, too little do they care, about 
these things ; but the time is come when they who 
desire to rejoice and joy with Jerusalem, must 
learn to mourn for her more feelingly than now 
they do. 

At nightfall, on the eve of this sad day, the con¬ 
gregations of Israel throughout the world assemble 
in their synagogues: every light is extinguished, 
save the faint glimmer that is needful to enable the 
officiating minister to read the appointed scripture 
—while, seated on the ground, in the deep gloom 
of such visible darkness, the assembly listen—with 
what emotions it is not for us to say—to the open¬ 
ing portion of the 137th Psalm. ‘‘ By the rivers 
of Babylon there we sat, yea, we wept when we 
remembered Zion.” After some ascriptions of 
praise, and dwelling on the promises of future mer¬ 
cy, they proceed in the following strain : 

“ This night have I for generations appointed 


LAMENTATIONS. 


173 


for mourning and lamentation : I therefore will 
weep and sit down dejected, and will not smell the 
fragrant spices. I am grieved bitterly, because 
mine iniquities have caused mine afflictions to pre¬ 
vail over me, when the holy city was burnt, by 
the Creator of the light of the fire.Be¬ 

hold, there is none to comfort us, for the tierce 
enemy is inexorable: and from the time of the 
ninth of Ab, we have been as orphans who are 
fatherless. From the day that they lifted up their 
voice, our ancestors on this night committed tres¬ 
pass : I have therefore appointed it for to weep, 
mourn, and lament. Our fathers have sinned, and 
are not, and how shall we bear their iniquity ? O 
thou, who dwellest in heaven, are the children to 
be put to death for the fathers ? Rise up with thy 
mercy, O our God, and compassionate us ; O turn 
our mourning into joy, for with our whole heart do 
we hope in thy salvation, O Lord ! O comfort the 
mourners of Jerusalem, who wait for thy redemp¬ 
tion and salvation : turn the captivity of the chil¬ 
dren of Israel, and let the Redeemer come to 
Zion !” 

The whole congregation repeat, ‘‘ Turn the cap¬ 
tivity of the children of Israel, and let the Re¬ 
deemer come to Zion !” 

After this, the Lamentations of Jeremiah are 
read throughout; some more affecting prayers put 
up, and the closing strain runs thus, the response 
of the people at every sentence being, For the 
glory of the renowned city of Zion I will weep day 
and night.’’ 

“ For the sake of my Temple, and the glory of 
the renowned city of Zion, wdll I weep day and 
15 * 



174 


.lUD^A CAPTA. 


night. The enemy hath made my glorious house 
desolate ; he hath driven me into the hands of Na- 
bioth and Shamah; for which I will continually 
weep with a doleful voice. I will continually weep 
for the repeated destruction of the delectable land, 
and the city of Jerusalem, and for her people which • 
are gone into captivity. 0 mourn thou Law, for thy 
glory is profaned: thy crown is fallen since the day ‘ 
that thy house was made desolate ; take up a lam¬ 
entation for Aholibahand Aholah.” 

This is but a prose translation of the most lofty 
Hebrew poetry. It is not possible to select from 
the exquisitely pathetic service of the day itself 
anything like an adequate specimen of the whole : 
but a few short passages may be given illustrative at 
once of the depth of their sorrow, and their readi¬ 
ness to justify the severe dealings of the Lord, 

“ The beautiful climate, the joy of the whole 
earth, the city wherein the chosen people dwelt, is 
become waste and desolate, a proverb, and a bye- 
word : all her people sigh, for they find no mercy. 
Her mighty men are confounded, because of the 
destructive sword; Jachin and Boaz are plucked 
up from the threshing-floor of Arauna: strangers 
have trodden and roared in the place where the Di¬ 
vine Shechinah rested. 

“ The Divine Shechinah crieth aloud, because of 
their wickedness, saying. Children, turn ; cease to 
do evil; for the bed is too short for one to stretch 
himself out at length. When the proud ones placed 
an idol in my habitation, the Divine glory departed 
from the inner Temple, and said, I will go, and re¬ 
turn to my own dwelling, until they acknowledge 
their trespass and seek my presence.” 


PROSPECT FROM ANTONIA. 


175 


All is in the same style : the portions of prophet¬ 
ic scripture are read which most clearly set forth 
what should come, and what then did come, upon 
Judah and Jerusalem, so giving glory to God for 
the fulfilment of his own word. How many among 
our readers, who owe their spiritual all to Israel, 
have turned aside from the paths of pleasure or of 
business, to keep this sorrowful anniversary with 
their brethren ? and to respond with a fervent amen 
to their prayer, ‘‘Turn the captivity of the children 
of Israel, and let the Redeemer come to Zion !” 

Titus retired for the night into the tower of An¬ 
tonia, purposing at early dawn to lead his whole 
army to the storming of the Temple, and to sur¬ 
round the holy house with his camp. Surely it 
was a sleepless vigil that the royal vulture kept, 
glaring down, through the dim light afibrded by 
casual fires, upon his splendid prey. We have al¬ 
ready described the tower of Antonia as guarding 
the north-west angle of the Temple’s enclosure, and 
here he might command a prospect, wonderful in 
all its details; unequalled, not even resembled, by 
any place upon earth. Towards the north and 
the west of his watchtower, all was in the spoiler’s 
hand : his camp occupied the ruins of Bezetha 
and Acra, while its outermost borders stretched 
far into the regions beyond. On the eastern side 
rose the Mount of Olives abruptly from the deep 
valley, of the Kedron, studded with his tents, 
which gave a hostile aspect to what had ever smil¬ 
ed in verdant beauty, and waved its dark bright 
olive boughs in peaceful homage towards the holy 
city. Due south, at his very feet, lay the courts of 
the Lord’s house, the outermost of which, a defiled 


176 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


heap of ruins, was occupied by his guards. Beyond 
it, and concealed by the majestic fabric, the hill 
Ophel descended to the valley of Hinnom; and 
broadly swelling to the south-west, crowned with 
palaces, and towers, and stately'dwellings, now the 
abode of misery and privation unspeakable, rose 
Zion, the proud site of the city of David, as yet 
untrod by hostile step ; and confident of ultimate 
deliverance, while the Temple of the Lord remain¬ 
ed untouched. 

What were the thoughts of Titus, as he looked 
around ? Did no compunction touch him for the 
cruelties that he had already perpetrated, nor one 
merciful impulse plead within his bosom for pity on 
the famishing thousands, the extremity of whose 
wretchedness was well known to him ? Was he, 
the proud and daring warrior, insensible to the 
claim on his martial sympathies established by the 
heroic defenders, for such, however great their 
transgressions, they unquestionably were, who had 
set, even to Romans, an example of courage, forti¬ 
tude, and patriotism, that might shame their own 
most vaunted records ? Of all this we know no¬ 
thing : but this we do know, that a more remorse¬ 
less slaughterer than Titus proved himself to be 
towards the Jewish nation never disgraced the hu- 
ir^an form. His desire to spare the goodly house 
o' the Lord arose avowedly from avaricious mo¬ 
tives : coveting, as he did, so gorgeous a trophy, 
and so inexhaustible a spoil. The wealth of that 
house was prodigious. Gold, silver, and fine 
brass ; the costliest of wood, and the rarest of 
precious stones ; all were there in profusion as un¬ 
bounded, as-was the exquisite workmanship that 


RICHES OF THS TEMPLE. 


177 


shaped them into lovely forms unrivalled through¬ 
out the world. 

In other matters Josephus may and does exag¬ 
gerate ; but here he scarcely can do so : for the 
Temple of the Lord at Jerusalem was enriched, 
not only with all that its own worshippers could, 
in the pride alike of their hearts and of their 
wealth, lavish upon it, but kings of every nation 
had thither sent their costly gifts ; and inasmuch 
as it fell short of the glory of Solomon’s, by so 
much it surpassed every other edifice, in the gran¬ 
deur of its architecture, and the magnitude of its 
treasures. To-morrow, and the Roman would 
march over the slain bodies of its children, to seize 
and to appropriate the prize, that glowed and 
glistened even through the darkness of that hour 
whensoever but the glance of a torch fell on its 
surface of snow-white marble interspersed with 
burnished gold. The very spikes, that warned the 
passing bird from resting where no pollution might 
come, were of that precious metal. Oh ! how un¬ 
like was the imperial spoiler, the dark destroyer of 
God’s forsaken heritage, watching to seize his 
prey, to the angel, the bright though terrible angel, 
who once, on that very spot, stretched a drawn 
sword over the threshing-floor of Araunah, towards 
the menaced city of Jerusalem ! There was a 
time when God himself vouchsafed to chastise 
his rebellious Israel : but now, direst of all ca¬ 
lamities ! He had delivered them into the hands 
of men. 

There is an appearance of confusion in the narra¬ 
tive of Josephus, just at this point: it would seem as 
though some Jewish feeling, not utterly annihilated, 


178 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


had overpowered him at the moment, when he re¬ 
called the scene where he had been, if not an actor, 
an acquiescent spectator ; when the Temple of the 
Lord whither the tribes of Israel had been wont, 
for so many ages, to go up wuth songs of joy and rev¬ 
erential praise, was stormed and destroyed by the 
savage hands of idolatrous barbarians. We gather, 
however, from his somewhat confused and hurried 
notice of the first movements on that fatal day, that 
the Jews, encouraged by seeing Titus retire into the 
tower, had only rested for a little space ; during 
which the fire had crept along, bursting out anew in 
the inner court, and then, before morning dawned, 
they made another attack on the Romans who occu¬ 
pied the court of the Gentiles, and whose orders 
were to extinguish every remaining spark of the 
recent conflagration. Regardless of the danger that 
threatened the holy house by this near approxima¬ 
tion of the fire, the Jews broke forth, and, after a 
short conflict, were repulsed by the guard; who, 
pressing close upon their retreating steps, entered 
with them the confines where Gentile foot was for¬ 
bidden to tread, and fulfilled, not the wfill of their 
leader, but the mighty purpose of the God of heaven. 
A soldier, “ hurried on by a certain divine fury,” 
snatched a blazing fragment from the surrounding 
ruin ; and being raised on the shoulders of a comrade, 
he thrust it through the golden frame-work of a rich 
window, opening from the northern range of those 
chambers that encircled the Temple. A few mo¬ 
ments, and the flames burst forth that told the fear¬ 
ful tale ; the house itself, the holy and beautiful 
house was burning—the chosen place of the habita¬ 
tion of the Most High was wreathed in clouds—not 


THE TEMPLE FIRED. 


179 


as those which of old bespoke the visible presence 
of Israel’s Almighty shield, but clouds of smoke and 
sparkles of fire, that proclaimed the arrival of the 
dreaded end. A terrible outcry burst from the 
agonized Jews ; they darted away from the battle, 
and surrounded the sacred building, utterly reckless 
of their own lives, and united in one sole purpose— 
that of staying the flames. Meanwhile a messenger 
hastened to apprise Titus of this unexpected event, 
and immediately he was on his way to the spot, fol¬ 
lowed by his officers, and they by the whole army, 
who, in one tremendous rush, bore down all oppo¬ 
sition, trampled on the Jews and on each other, and 
many fell, yelling with agony, into the burning mass 
of the ruined cloisters, there to perish unheeded : 
altogether vtis presented a spectacle of demoniac 
fury, madness, and violence, that it surely seemed 
as though all hell were called together to rejoice 
and revel over the awful scene. 

In vain did Titus command, in vain did he threat¬ 
en and implore ; in vain was each imaginable meth¬ 
od tried by the agitated leaders to reduce into some¬ 
thing like subordination the maddened multitude 
so wisely trained to order and obedience. Ea/jh 
legion was like a legion of evil spirits, intent only 
on perpetrating every possible outrage against that 
which, uninjured, would have enriched them all, 
while its destruction was a general loss. Each 
who could gain access to the sanctuary was eager 
to lend his aid in feeding the flame that now wrap¬ 
ped it round. The altar was there, and piled in 
heaps on every side of it lay the slaughtered Jews. 
They could offer no other resistance than their 
bleeding bodies to the polluting approach of those 


180 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


heathen spoilers ; and so they walled it round, and 
fell in a great heap of slaughter about it, and form¬ 
ed a pile upon its top, and rolled in their gore upon 
the hallowed pavement, and covered, literally cov¬ 
ered to a great depth, the whole surface of the 
mount of the Lord’s house. Not alone the armed 
men who were marshalled in its defence, but the 
poor famished citizens rushed into the press, and 
offered their defenceless throats to the Roman knife, 
and died with arms outstretched towards the burn¬ 
ing Temple of the Lord. Zion awoke in all her 
streets, and in all her sorrowful houses, and looked 
forth in terror. Alas ! alas ! the Lord who in the 
fire of his majesty descended on Sinai, and spake to 
their fathers, and gave them a covenant of peace— 
the Lord who had oft, in the fire of his glory, 
shone upon Moriah, and with the beauty of his 
Shechinah brightness caused the sunbeam to fade 
and disappear—the Lord had now kindled upon the 
holy hill the fire of his withering wrath ; and as 
the dark red flames shot up towards heaven, and 
the thick black smoke streamed heavily along the 
twilight sky, and the roar and rush of the crack¬ 
ling mass of fire at times prevailed even above the 
roar and rush of infuriated armies, and the cries 
of dying men, Zion looked forth from her battle¬ 
ments, and knew that the crown had fallen from her 
head, and that her God had forsaken her. 

Terrible, most terrible, was the scene ! The 
high elevation on which that holy house was plant¬ 
ed rendered it visible from every quarter, and ima¬ 
gination may toil in vain to grasp the horrors of 
that hour. Many in the city who were already so 
far gone in their last agonies of death by famine and 


/ 


THE SPREADING FLAMES. 181 

pestilence as to haYe been long time speechless, 
unclosed their ghastly lips to utter an expiring out¬ 
cry of lamentation and wo for the house of the 
Lord. The whole slope of Zion was overhung 
with faces, gazing, some in the stupefaction of hor¬ 
ror, others distorted with anguish and rage, on the 
soul-harrowing prospect. Was that the Temple 
towards whose gleaming beauty they were wont at 
early dawn to turn and pray ? Was that the con¬ 
secrated spot within whose guarded precincts even 
the pagan rulers of a tributary race presumed not 
to set a foot, but humbly sent their costly gifts to 
be laid by Jewdsh hands wheresoever they saw 
meet to place them ? 

Fiercely and more fiercely still raged the spread¬ 
ing sea of fire, as the very innermost recess, the 
holy of holies, now yielded to the burning flame. 
There were stransie deeds done in the midst of the 
fire. Some of the priests mounted the roof, and 
tearing thence the golden spikes, the bases of which 
were of lead, they shot them as arrows at the sacri¬ 
legious foe. Two of the chief men among them, 
Meirus and Joseph, completed their work by casting 
themselves into the burning mass, deeming it a 
privilege to die by the fire that consumed the holy 
place. Titus and his fellows had forced their way 
into the inner sanctuary ere yet the destruction 
reached it, and caught a hasty view of the magnifi¬ 
cence that never should be theirs to lord it over. 
During the interval, much spoil, however, was se¬ 
cured ; among the rest, the golden candlestick, the 
table of shew-bread, and many costly vessels of 
gold, were seized, together with the sacred rolls, 
the oracles of God, to adorn the barbarous triumph 
16 


182 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


of the imperial homicides ; but from all the pollu 
tion that it had undergone the house was purged by 
fire, and in that fire it was swallowed up. The 
very hill was heated to such a pitch as to scorch 
the bodies of the dying who covered the surface, 
trodden down by the enemy in masses ; the iron- 
bound shoes of the Koreans, with their sharp nails, 
at once crushing and piercing the writhing heap 
over v/hich they ran to new slaughters. 

In the remaining cloister of the outer court, six 
thousand people, chiefly women and children, had 
enclosed themselves, as a place of refuge. This 
building was at once set on fire by the savage sol¬ 
diery, who suffered not one of that large number to 
escape with life. The slaughter of that day cannot 
be told, even such as was confined to the Mount 
Moriah alone ; and when all was completed, when 
none remained on whom to glut their ferocity, nor 
any ruin that they could farther deface by fire— 
when the remnant of the garrison had retreated, 
with Simon and John their leaders, over the bridge 
that crossed the Tyropean from the south-western 
corner of the Temple wall to Zion—when the 
echoes of the mountains had ceased to reverberate 
with Judah’s terrible cries of anguish, and despair, 
and death, and the burning heat of the paved courts 
had been somewhat slaked by the blood that first 
flowed,then curdled and coagulated, blending in one 
hideous mass of gore the mangled bodies that 
formed its covering—then the abomination of deso¬ 
lation was literally set up in the holy place. The 
soldiers brought their ensigns—choice objects of 
their impious worship ! —and planted them where 
Solomon had spread forth his hands towards the 


CRUELTY OF TITUS. 


183 


Holy One of Israel, whose presence then filled the 
house with a glory before which none could stand. 
Y es, in the sight of Zion, beneath the gaze of her 
agonized citizens, w^as this foul dishonor consum¬ 
mated. The Roman eagles were set over against 
the eastern gate, and incense was burned, and 
adoration paid to the senseless idols ; and again the 
mountain echoes awoke to send back the thunder¬ 
ing shouts and acclamations of that heathen host, 
intoxicated with blood, and overburdened with 
spoil. 

Josephus was there. No greater condemnation 
can be written against him, and we add no com¬ 
ment on the words. , 

There was one wall of the holy house still inac¬ 
cessible to the enemy, and on it a company of the 
priests remained for five days, pining with famine, 
and probably unmolested by the soldiers, that their 
sufferings might be prolonged. At the end of this 
time they came down and besought mercy of Titus, 
only asking that their lives might be spared. The 
tyrant mockingly replied that their time of pardon 
was over, that the very holy house on whose ac¬ 
count only they could justly hope to be preserved,'- 
was destroyed, and that it was agreeable to their 
priestly office to perish with the house to which 
they belonged. He then ordered them to be mur¬ 
dered. From this speech we are tempted to sur¬ 
mise that, had he succeeded in preserving the 
Temple, he would have compelled the Jewish 
priesthood to continue their service before the de¬ 
mons with whose filthy images he intended to pol¬ 
lute it. How merciful, then, in the midst of judg¬ 
ment, was the Holy On 3 of Israel, who here, even 


184 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


here, in this terrible visitation of seemingly un¬ 
measured wrath, so wrought for his great jName’s 
sake that he would not give over his ancient sanc¬ 
tuary, or his ancient people, to such blasphemous 
abominations ! 

It now remained for a parley to be held between 
the Jewish commanders and the Roman conqueror. 
The bridge just before mentioned was the scene of 
their conference, and the former asking mercy: the 
latter giving them a specimen of his oratorical abil¬ 
ities. He began by vaunting the prowess of the 
Romans, intermingling his boasts with much abu¬ 
sive crimination of those whom he addressed ; and 
ending a string of mean reproaches by demanding 
that they should lay down their arms, and surren¬ 
der themselves to his mercy. To this they an¬ 
swered, that they were bound by an oath never to 
do so; but if he would permit them, with their 
wives and little ones, to go forth through his en¬ 
compassing wall, they would repair to the desert, 
and leave the city to him. This proposal he scorn¬ 
fully rejected, and ordered the soldiers to burn and 
plunder the city. Acra alone was in their hands 
as yet, and here they destroyed the repository of 
the archives, the council-house, and whatever re¬ 
mained to undergo a more perfect wreck ; but they 
gained not much plunder, the Jews having carried 
their more valuable effects into the upper city. 
Instead of being intimidated by fh^ spectacle of the 
burning town, the people put on cheerful counte¬ 
nances, saying that their miseries were now about 
to be terminated by death. Josephus tried again 
and again so to work on their fears, or so to excite 
their hopes, as to induce them to surrender uncon- 


THE CLOSING SCENE. 


185 


ditionally; but he was, as formerly, met with 
taunts and well-deserved reproaches. He re¬ 
venges himself by a fresh burst of accusations 
against his countrymen, whom he invariably repre¬ 
sents as the veriest monsters of tyrannous cruelty 
against their partners in affliction ; and as an apo¬ 
logetic preface, no doubt, to the enormities of his 
heathen allies, still to be detailed, he represents 
the destruction of the remainino- Jews as an inter- 

O 

position to save them from wanton cannibalism! 

Fain would we pass lightly over these harrowing 
particulars of the closing scene. Ten days elapsed 
from the destruction of the Temple ere Titus could 
proceed to raise banks against the city of David ; 
and then eighteen days’ labor was required so far 
to complete them as to allow of planting their en¬ 
gines. They were opposed to the last in these 
operations, but more faintly and by a diminished 
manner; for what heart could endure, or what 
hand be strong in the day when God was manifest¬ 
ly dealing with his offending people, and fulfilling 
upon them the denunciations with whicTfi they 
were familiar, though, while the holy mount was 
uninjured, they could not believe that on them was 
the weight of the arrow to fall ? Hitherto, one 
look towards the Lord’s house—our holy and 
beloved house where our fathers worshipped”)— 
was sufficient to inspire every bosom with fresh 
ardor ; for even where the spirit of national devo¬ 
tion v.ms not, the power of national pride, and con¬ 
fidence in their peculiar privileges, and the obsti¬ 
nate reiterating the boast denounced by the pro¬ 
phet, “ The evil shall not overtake nor prevent 
16 ^ 


186 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


US,”* all inspired them with resolution that nothing 
could quell. But now, what saw they, when, ha¬ 
bitually and involuntarily, they turned to the site of 
their glorious Temple ? A mass of black and 
shapeless ruin, from the midst of which arose the 
accursed fumes of incense, probably the very in¬ 
cense stored for the service of the sanctuary, now 
burning before the idol abomination, the standard 
that"*was reared aloft to mock the desolation 
wrought by its worshippers. No, the Jewish heart 
could not endure, the Jewish hand could not be 
strong in so dark a day of rebuke and blasphemy. 
Accordingly the survivors, who had laughed to 
scorn all that Rome could do, now enclosed them¬ 
selves, some in the citadel, others in the subterra¬ 
nean vaults and caverns, the entrances to which 
are now closed up, and hills of ruins heaped where 
the deepest gully of the interior pass then cleft the 
city in twain, between Zion and Ophel. A few 
only persevered in manning the walls, and obstruct¬ 
ing the work of the enemy: these, elated by their 
recent triumphs, wrought cheerfully and energeti¬ 
cally, as men who have but one more feeble ob¬ 
stacle to surmount. 

It was upon the weaker part of the wall, which 
crested the Tyropean valley, that an impression 
was at length made. Titus had gained possession 
of Ophel when he took the Temple, and conse¬ 
quently was within that part of the ancient wall 
which extended southward to the valley of Hin- 
'nom,and then stretched eastward as far as Siloam. 
Some of the slighter towers in this partition wall 


* Amos ix. 10. 


ZION TAKEN. 


1S7 


gave way before his engines; anti had the o-ar- 
rison retired to their impregnable strong-htflds, 
Hippicus, Mariamne, Phasaelus, and the other 
similar towers, they might still have bade defiance 
to the utmost power of the foe, and have held 
out while famine spared them; but a panic seized 
them all, and on the raising of a false alarm that 
the western wall of Zion had fallen, they burst 
from the city, and madly endeavored to force a 
passage through the Roman wall below Siloam. 


Failing in this, they yielded to utter despair, and 
fled to subterranean passages and caverns, per¬ 
haps to be again laid open to the eyes of their de¬ 
scendants, when they who come of them shall 
repair to Zion, to rebuild, to restore, to clothe in 
ten-fold beauty what Gentiles have long trampled 
down, but never have been permitted to raise up. 
That blessing is reserved for Judah alone. 

Thus, and not by the failure of its ancient defences, 
was Zion taken. The hills yet stood about Jerusa¬ 
lem, the towers and bulwarks of Zion still frowned 
defiance on the hostile band, and her palaces rose 
proudly from the swelling ground, “ beautiful for 
situation” as when the pious David laid their strong 
foundations in the rocky soil. But, alas ! the Lord 
no longer stood around his people ; the Highest had 
forsaken them, the Saviour of Israel had been as a 
wayfaring man that tarrieth but for a night and de- 
parteth. Scarcely could the Roman host believe 
that Judah’s arm had at length fallen powerless, and 
that the prey round which they had for months in 
fierce impatience vainly prowled, was theirs, and lay 
defenceless at their mercy—Roman mercy ! Jose¬ 
phus says that the soldiers went in numbers through 


188 


JUDiEA CAPTA 


the lanes of the city, slaying without mercy whom¬ 
soever they found. They broke into the stately 
palaces, and noble mansions, and were driven thence 
by the loathsome discovery of their being treasure- 
houses of the dead ; their spacious apartments were 
filled with corrupting bodies, for whom no offices of 
devout care due from the living to the departed had 
been performed ; for whose withering remains no 
place of burial, no hands to bury them, could be 
found. Neither this nor any other spectacle of hu¬ 
man wo could move the iron hearts of those evil 
and cruel men; they butchered all who came 
within their grasp, set fire to the houses, and in the 
lower grounds actually saw those fires quenched by 
the streams of human blood that flowed down upon 
them. The ways of Zion mourned, for her sons 
and her daughters, the old man and the suckling 
fell in one mass of indiscriminate carnage. Titus, 
the clement Titus, as history loves to call him, 
cordially sanctioned this diabolical cruelty, amusing 
himself the while by inspecting the impregnable 
towers which he confessed he never could have 
overthrown by means of men or of machinery ; 
acknowledging that to the last despairing sally of 
the self-devoted Jews he owed his conquest. 

When the soldiers were entirely fatigued wdth 
slaughter, and desired rest, the hapless remnant of 
Zion were subjected to the further anguish of being 
conducted to the courts of the Temple, paved as it 
was with death and fearfully desecrated by idol 
worship. Here a ruffian, named Fronto, was deputed 
to decide the doom of all. The old men were butch¬ 
ered, together with all such as, by mutual or other 
accusation, could be pointed out as having contrib- 


GREAT SUFFERING. 189 

uted to the defence. A number of the goodliest 
young men were reserved for the tyrant’s triumph 
in Rome. Of those above seventeen years old, he 
sent one numerous portion to the Egyptian mines, to 
suffer more, far more than ever did their fathers in 
.the land of their first oppression j many others were 
sent into the provinces, “ as a present to them,” says 
the shameless apostate Josephus, ‘‘ that they 
might be destroyed upon their theatres, by the 
sword, and by wild beasts; but those that were 
under seventeen years of age were sold for slaves. 
Now, during the days when Fronto was distin¬ 
guishing these men, there perished, for want of 
food, eleven thousand : some of which did not 
taste any food through the hatred their guards bore 
to them ; and others would not take in any when 
it was given them.” The heartless relator does 
not add that these last were but obeying one of 
the strictest precepts of their Divine law, in reject¬ 
ing the unclean, polluted offal that the blood¬ 
stained hands of their heathen murderers tender¬ 
ed ; offered, probably, before their faces to the 
idols that stood in the holy place. 

He then tells us that the extraordinary number 
of those shut up in the siege was owing to the cir¬ 
cumstance of the army closing upon them during 
the days of unleavened bread, when all the males 
were assembled there. This produced famine, 
pestilence, and all the dreadful aggravations of 
suffering that we have been compelled to contem¬ 
plate ; as it also mournfully marks the withdrawal 
from them of the mercy which had decreed and 
promised that while they remained true to their 
covenant with the Eternal, no man should desire 


190 


JUDJEA CAPTA. 


their land, oi take advantage of their absence dur¬ 
ing the solemn assemblies in Jerusalem. Under 
any other circumstances, the statement would be 
incredible that sets forth the greatness of the multi¬ 
tude who perished in and after this fearful siege ; 
but this explains and confirms it. 

Simon and John concealed themselves until 
hunger compelled them to sue for mercy : the lat¬ 
ter was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, 
which, under such gaolers, could not be of very 
long continuance; and Simon was reserved to 
drag his chains after the triumphal car of the 
haughty Roman, and then to be tortured to death 
in the streets of the imperial city, while the con¬ 
queror paused in his march until the base and cow¬ 
ardly deed was done. Having left none in Jeru¬ 
salem to slaughter, nor more plunder to seize, 
Titus commanded the ruins of the Temple to be 
entirely demolished, with those of the city, leav¬ 
ing only the towers of Phasaelus, Hippicus, and 
Mariamne, with a portion of the western wall, 
standing. He then celebrated a great sacrifice to 
his demons, feasted, flattered, decorated, and other¬ 
wise rewarded his followers in proportion to the 
sanguinary fame that they had won, and departed. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Shall we follow the imperial savage on his 
homeward way, with the sad remnant of Zion’s 
captive children ? He repaired to the place whence 
he set forth, Caesarea, and the birthday of his 
brother Domitian shortly after occurring, he cele¬ 
brated it, after what Josephus calls a splendid 
manner, by inflicting, in his honor, a portion 
of the cruelties reserved for the helpless and inof¬ 
fensive Jews ; for, be it ever borne in mind, they 
had already put to death all whom they could 
accuse of having in any way resisted their arms, 
and those who remained alive were the n^^n and 
matrons, the youths and virgins of Israel, captured 
in the city of David, where, according to Josephus 
himself, they were compelled to remain by the 
party whom he calls seditious ; and who all, except 
John and Simon, had been slaughtered. Of these 
most pitiable victims, the clement Titus took more 
than two thousand five hundred, and on this day 
caused them to be slain by fighting with wild 
beasts, or with each other, or being burnt alive, 
or in some other horrible way: for Josephus re- 
marlts, “Yet did all this seem to the Romans, 
when they were thus destroyed, ten thousand seve¬ 
ral ways, to be a punishment beneath their deserts.” 
Upon his father’s birthday, shortly after, at Eery- 
tus, another and a greater multitude of the captives 


192 


JUDJUA CAPTA. 


were, by the same merciful Titus, in like manner 
tortured to death. At Antioch most cruel and 
terrible enormities were committed against the 
peaceable Jewish inhabitants, on charges that were 
afterwards proved to be false. Among these out¬ 
rages, the forcible abolition of their Sabbath was 
resorted to; and such as would not sacrifice to 
idols, which included nearly the whole body, were 
on one occasion put to death. This was done by a 
Greek tyrant, by means of Roman soldiers, whom 
Titus sent to him for the purpose. The progress 
of the prince through Syria was marked by numer¬ 
ous halts at all the chief cities, where he constantly 
regaled the inhabitants with the spectacle of torture 
mangled Jews. After rejecting, in his royal caprice, 
the application of the people of Antioch against 
the Hebrews still remaining among them, he pro¬ 
ceeded ; and in his circuitous march again passed 
by Jerusalem, where once more the army made a 
brief but diligent search among the gory ruins for 
any treasure that might remain; and some they 
dug up. 

Titus came to Rome. It is altogether sickening 

O O 

to read the description, as penned by this unworthy, 
this contemptible sycophant, Josephus, of his ova¬ 
tion there. The arch of Titus stands a frowning 
monument of what has been, a stern attestor of what, 
in the course of Divine retribution, is yet to come. 
Hoisted on high, in a gorgeous car of triumph, the 
proud destroyers, father and son, received the hom¬ 
age of a people, concerning whom it may truly be 
said that they and their rulers were worthy of each 
other. There was a splendid show, including all 
that art or arms could bring together, with many 






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Titus entering Rome in Triumph. P. 193. 

















































































BARBARIAN TRIUMPH. 


193 


images of the demons worshipped by Rome ; and 
pictures of sacked towns, and burning palaces ; and 
every calamity that had befallen the land and the 
people of Israel during this dreadful war. But 
this was not all a pictorial illusion ; for on the sum- 
init of each representative group was placed the 
highest in command among the surviving captives, 
reserved to torture and to death, as the recompense 
of his courageous patriotism. 

But how was the rear of these sad trophies 
brought up } The spoils of every other land and 
city sank into nothingness before the grandeur and 
the worth of what came last. The golden candle¬ 
stick with its seven bright lamps, that had shed 
their lustre on the walls of thy glorious Temple, O 
Jerusalem ! the golden table reserved for the shew- 
bread, that also dwelt within that hallowed sanctu¬ 
ary ; and, greatest of all—of worth more precious 
than the whole material globe, the Law, the living 
word of the Most High God, wrapped in its richest 
coverings, and borne as a trophy, the worth of 
which could only be estimated by the anguish of 
those who saw it rent from its sacred repository. 
The captives of Judah were there, but the con 
science-stricken Josephus says nothing of them, 
save that among them, Simon was led, with a rope 
about his head, violently drawn and deliberately 
tortured as he went along; till, arriving at the 
forum, his miseries were terminated by a bloody 
death; on the official intimation of which to the 
imperial rulers the sacrifices of thankfulness com¬ 
menced the things which the heathen sacrifice, 
they sacrifice unto devils, not unto God,”) prayers 
were offered to those who had ears and heard not j 
17 


194 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


the populace were feasted ; and the memory of 
their disastrous work of desolation was decreed to 
be perpetuated in a coin, of which many specimens 
remain to this day, sadly attesting the reality and 
the prolonged continuance of Judaea’s desolate cap¬ 
tivity. 

We hasten to turn from this scene of proud pomp, 
and sanguinary cruelty, and debasing idolatry ; from 
the seven-hilled city, ruling over the kings of the 
earth ; from Rome, the unchanged and unchangea¬ 
ble enemy of God and his people ; Rome, the 
daughter of Babylon, that is to be destroyed, even 
as she, in all her changes of government and reli¬ 
gion, has been the universal destroyer : we leave 
her to bide her time, assured that the judgment of 
God overhangs her infamous fanes, and temples of 
impenitent idolatry, to seek once more the blighted 
hill and deserted plains of Judaea. Is this Jerusa¬ 
lem ? Alas, 

“ How doth the city sit solitary that was full of 
people ! 

“ How is she become as a widow, she that was 
great among nations!” 

Shall we take our seat upon the springing grass 
that scantily begins to sprout, where the fire of the 
departing legion, burning their now useless camp, 
ran up the slope of the mount, destroyed the ver¬ 
dant blade, and scorched the olive branches that 
had not been spared in the general wreck, but for 
the luxurious shade that they afforded to weary and 
baffled and irritated soldiers ? They are gone, and, 
too richly fertilized by the life-blood of many a vic¬ 
tim, slaughtered here in the first fiery conflict, and 
subsequently in the wanton malice of revenge, the 


SCENES OF DESOLATxON. 


195 


soil has begun to put forth its vegetation ; yet tim¬ 
idly, tardily, and as though fearing that the iron 
hand of hostile men would again suddenly crush it. 

The loneliness of the spot is fearful, for it is not 
the loneliness of some retired and solitary hill, 
where the busy hum of population has never intrud¬ 
ed, where the mountain kid has browsed, and the 
light gazelle has bounded, and the wild coney bur¬ 
rowed, and the birds have made 'their nests undis¬ 
turbed, and sung among the branches : no, it is the 
loneliness of death, the harsh reign of stern and 
vengeful desolation. Of all that rendered Zion the 
joy of the whole earth, of all that marked Jerusa¬ 
lem as the city of the Great King, of all that rav¬ 
ished the eyes of the ascending tribes, when in 
festal pomp they came up to keep holiday in the 
courts of the Lord’s house, what now rerrv^iins ? 
Far oft, at the opposite western extremity of the 
city, a portion of the wall is seen ; it had been left 
standing as a shelter to the legion who, for a space, 
were commanded to encamp without it; keeping 
guard, as though the very ghost of slaughtered 
Israel might rise and re-occupy the beloved city. 
At one point rises a massive tower, that of Hippi- 
cus, and nearer to the eye another, and another yet, 
three melancholy watchers looking down upon 
their dead. This, and this only, remains of the 
tumultuous city of Israel’s solemnities. All beside 
is one confused, undistinguished ruin ; but such a 
ruin ! the very stones of Zion, disjointed, broken, 
and hurled on heaps, are statelier than the palaces 
of other lands. Immense in size, of alaba.ster 
whiteness, polished, and gleaming beneath the 
burning ray, they are so beautiful that the eye is 


196 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


not satisfied with gazing, nor the heart weary of 
asking who did, who could accomplish such an 
overthrow ? Nigh unto the foot of this mountain, 
the graceful Olivet, rises a platform, the symmetri¬ 
cal proportions of which cannot wholly be conceal¬ 
ed, though fragments of mighty dimensions, where 
black charcoal intermingles with the dazzling white 
of their pure marble, and fitful gleams betray that 
a strip of burnished gold has here and there escaped 
the plunderer’s eye, and as now perchance washed 
by the kindly rain-drops from the coating gore that 
long disguised it, form a heap more strange and 
wild than in other quarters : and down, down into 
what must erewhile have been a valley of consid¬ 
erable depth, and wdiere a streamlet evidently 
wandered, have been hurled such wrecks as would 
rebuild a city of palaces, rising almost to a level 
with the lofty site of what once was the Temple 
of the God of the whole earth. 

And while we gaze the loneliness is broken, for 
from beneath the temporary caverns formed by shat¬ 
tered columns and prostrate arches, peers forth the 
beast of prey, darting from one dark recess to an¬ 
other, with the short rude growl that speaks of un¬ 
welcome disturbance, perchance from a stronger or 
fiercer than himself. Alas ! beneath those mighty 
wrecks of architecture there still remain the linger¬ 
ing relics of human flesh and bone, to tempt the 
jackal, and the wolf, and the lion from Jordan’s 
swell, to prowl amid the desolations that man, more 
savage, has prepared for them to dwell in ; and there 
they have found shelter, and there in a royal and a 
hallowed den they have already brought forth their 
young. The vulture, long accustomed to follow 


WRECKS OF SPLENDOR. 


19 ? 


the march of the Roman caterer, is even yet wheel¬ 
ing round, above these few, scathed olives, with a 
screaming inquiry whether more prey is at hand ; 
and the cormorant, the bittern and the owl, cry out 
from the windows of those desolate towers, that 
they alone dwell there. 

The city is utterly broken, her ancient landmarks 
are destroyed. Builders may come to repair the 
ruin, and credulous superstition may lay her finger 
on conjectured sites, and say, “ Here will I build me 
a church, and there will I raise a monument, and 
over such a spot shall an inscription be graven 
but all is idle, all is folly and vanity. Zion, Jerusa¬ 
lem, Moriah,—these shall stand, distinct and utterly 
incapable of obliteration by all that man can do. 
The valley of Jehoshaphat shall sink, the Mount of 
Olives shall rise, and the waters of Siloam shMl go 
softly through the lapse of ages during which the 
land must enjoy her Sabbaths, and Jerusalem be 
trodden under foot by Gentile usurpation ; but be¬ 
yond these grand, these everlasting outlines, man 
must be content to grope his way by dubious guess¬ 
work, and to form devices that shall end in nothing. 
Jerusalem must become the spoil of many nations ; 
she may pass from the clutch of a heathen Roman 
emperor into that of a nominally Christian Greek : 
she may be seized by the bold Saracen, then rent 
from him by Rome, the wolf of old, now mantled 
in sheepskin, and masked under another name, but 
not one whit less bloodily wolfish than of yore ; then 
re-conquered by the wild sons of Ishmael ; then 
snatched for a little space by Egypt, and relinquish¬ 
ed again. She may be trodden down of other 
masters yet, and the banners of all nations may wave 
17 * 


198 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


on her diminished walls, but the city of God she 
shall never be again, till her warfare is accomplish¬ 
ed, her iniquity pardoned, and the Redeemer, her 
own Messiah, comes to reign over the restored tribes 
of her inheritance ; for. 

Thus saith the 'Lord God : 

“ Remove the diadem, and take off the crown ; 

“ This shall not be the same: 

“ Exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. 

“ I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; 

‘‘ And it shall be no more, until He come whose 
right it is; 

And I will give it Him.”* 

The overturning has not ceased ; nay, it is in 
full operation now, and the horns that have scat¬ 
tered Judah are pushing in all directions in this our 
day. They that have robbed him, they that have 
persecuted him, they that have made themselves 
drunk with his blood, and kept him a homeless 
wanderer on the world’s surface, while they fought 
for the prize of his desolate land and ruined cities 
—these, as nations, live and are mighty still. The 
hour of their judgment is not come ; the carpenters 
who are to fray the horns have not been revealed ; 
the dry bones of Israel, though greatly stirred, and 
in some degree united, with growing sinews and 
deepening flesh, have not yet received life to stand 
on their feet and to go forward. Till this takes 
place, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, and 
the set time for the Lord to favor Zion be fully 
come, vain are man’s conjectures, and vain will be 
his plans. Can he fertilize the barren soil, and 


* Ezek. xxi. 26, 27. 


SCRIPTURAL HOPE. 


199 


turn the dry land into springs of water ? If so, let 
him proceed, and there set the hungry, and build 
them cities to dwell in. But he cannot; it is the 
prerogative of the Omnipotent arm that hath smit¬ 
ten and scattered to bind up and re-assemble the 
flock of his ancient pasture, the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel! 

They know this, and they put no confidence in 
man’s devices for their weal; they wait for a sig¬ 
nal from above, for which we also profess to wait, 
even the manifestation of Messiah their King. 
Thus they pray: “ O comfort the mourners of 
Jerusalem, who wait for thy redemption and sal¬ 
vation ; turn the captivity of the children of Israel, 
and let the Redeemer come to Zion !” 

Not a threat recorded in the twenty-sixth chap¬ 
ter of the Book of Leviticus, from the fourfeenth 
verse to the fortieth, but has been, and still is, lit¬ 
erally fulfilled upon the people and on the land of 
Israel. Who shall dare to pause at this point, and 
not proceed as the Lord proceeds, in the same 
breath, on the same subject, and with the same lit¬ 
eral significancy } ‘‘ If they shall confess their 

iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their 
trespass which they trespassed against me, and 
that also they have walked contrary unto me, and 
that I also have walked contrary unto them, and 
have brought them into the land of their enemies— 
if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and 
they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, 
then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and 
also my covenant with Isaac, and also my cove¬ 
nant with Abraham will I remember, and I will 
remember the land. The land also shall be left of 


200 


JUD-EA CAPTA. 


them, and shall enjoy their sabbaths, while she 
lieth desolate without them ; and they shall accept 
of the punishment of their iniquity, because, even 
because they despised my judgments, and because 
their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet, for all 
that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I 
will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, 
to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant 
with them, for 1 am the Lord their God. But I 
will, for their sakes, remember the covenant of their 
ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of 
Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be 
their God. I am the Lord.” 

Again, in the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book ' 
of Deuteronomy, from the fifteenth verse to the 
end, the afflictions that should overtake the people 
wfflen once they had provoked the Lord to pour 
out upon them the full cup of wrath, are detailed 
in language that makes the heart of man quail 
while he listens to it; every particular even of the 
final siege, and of the terrible gloom of the captives, 
offered for sale to their enemies in such numbers 
that buyers could not be found, which was the case 
when the Romans prevailed over them. In the thir¬ 
tieth chapter, from the first to the tenth verse, the 
promise of final blessing is given. Who shall re¬ 
verse it ^ Who shall say that Israel, sinning na¬ 
tionally, punished nationally, scattered nationally, 
and by an amazing miracle nationally preserved, 
shall not as a nation receive the fulfilment of what 
is here set forth ? “ And it shall come to pass, 

when all these things are comie upon thee, the 
blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, 
and thou shalt call them to mind among all the na- 


NATIONAL BLESSINGS. 


201 


tions whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, 
and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt 
obey his voice according to all that I command thee 
this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, 
and with all thy soul; that then the Lord thy God 
will turn thy captivity, and will have compassion 
upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all 
the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scat¬ 
tered thee. If any of thine be driven out into the 
outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the 
Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he 
fetch thee : and the Lord thy God will bring thee 
into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou 
shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and mul¬ 
tiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy 
God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of 
thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all*thine 
heart, and with all thy soul ; that thou mayestlive. 
And the Lord thy God will put all these curses 
upon thine enemies, and on them that hated thee, 
which persecuted thee. And thou shall return and 
obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his com¬ 
mandments which I command thee this day. And 
the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in 
every work of thine hand, in the fi’uit of thy body, 
and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy 
land, for good ; for the Lord will again rejoice over 
thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers, if 
thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord 
thy God, to keep his commandments and his stat¬ 
utes, which are written in this book of the law, and 
thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine 
heart, and with all thy soul.” 

There is no dubiousness here. In hath instances, 


202 


JUD^A CAPTa. 


the wrath that was threatened perfectly describes, 
with historical exactness, not only what the annals 
of Gentile lands declare to have been done upon 
Judah and Jerusalem at and after the last siege of 
the city by Titus, but also what in our own day we 
see to be in most parts of the world the actual con- 
dition of the people : while the desolation of the 
land, and the ruined aspect of the city,—^Zion 
ploughed like a field, Jerusalem become heaps, and 
the mountain of the Lord’s house as a high place 
of the forest,—are testified by eye-witnesses, and 
have been beheld by not a few of ourselves. In both 
instances this wrath is described as being followed 
by repentance and a turning to the Lord on the part 
of the whole house of Judah and of Israel combined, 
the pardoning mercy of their God, and a full resti¬ 
tution to all the privileges that of old were theirs, 
including the covenanted grant of the fruitful land, 
which remains barren and waste, as an appointed 
sign that Israel is not yet forgiven and at hand to 
come.” Strange indeed is the ingenuity that can, 
and far too daring is the boldness that will, attempt 
to explain away what God hath not only spoken but 
still confirms by great signs and wonders before us, 
by the truly miraculous preservation of the Jewish 
people, sifted among all nations, yet never mingled 
wdth any ; retaining the seal of the covenant; keep¬ 
ing unchanged their Sabbath days ; and observing 
their peculiar ordinances even now in many places, 
and sometimes everywhere, at the hazard of their 
lives. Not to dwell on the no less miraculous fact, 
that a land the richest in the whole world has never 
been brought into cultivation by any of the various 
lords who, through eighteen centuries, have succes- 


VISIBLE FULFILMENT. 


203 


sively been permitted to rule over it. It has been 
often remarked that infidelity is the highest stretch 
of credulity, and in reference to this subject we must 
needs acknowledge that so it appears. The man 
who in the face of all this evidence asserts that the 
Jewish people are not to be nationally restored, im¬ 
plies that what God hath spoken He will not so per¬ 
form ; and he who admits that daring negation is 
credulous enough to believe anything. 


I 


CHAPTER XV. 


There is not a more touching passage in the 
Jewish service-books, which amount to several 
volumes, than one of the mournful chants appoint¬ 
ed for the ninth day of Ah. It will probably be 
new to the greater part of our readers; for our 
ignorance of what passes in the synagogues, and 
among the Jews generally, is profound. Were it 
otherwise, we might perhaps attain to a more 
scriptural understanding of their position in refer¬ 
ence to other things; but we pass on to give 
the poetical antithesis, which loses much, very 
much, by its transmutation into another tongue 
from the majestic Hebrew of the original. 

“ Joy as fire burnt within me, when I reflected 
on my going forth from Egypt; 

“ But now I am awakened to lamentation, when 
I remember my going forth from Jerusalem. 

“ Then Moses sang the song which shall never 
be forgotten, when I came forth from Egypt. 

“ But Jeremiah lamented with sorrow, lamenta¬ 
tion, and wo, when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

‘‘ My house was prepared, and the cloud abode 
thereon, when I came forth from Egypt; 

“ But the wrath of God rested on me as a cloud 
when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

The waves of the sea roared, and stood up as 
a wall, when I came forth from Egypt j 


MOURNFUL CONTRASTS. 


205 


But the waters overflowed my head, and over¬ 
whelmed me, when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

Corn descended from heaven, and the rock 
issued forth water, w^hen I came forth from Egypt; 

But I was satiated with wormwood and gall, 
and bitter waters, when 1 went forth from Jerusa¬ 
lem. 

“ I arose early and continued until even, around 
Mount Horeb, when I came forth from Egypt; 

But I was called to mourn by the waters of 
Babylon when I W'ent forth from Jerusalem. 

“ The glory of the Lord was visible as a con¬ 
suming fire before me when 1 came forth from 
Egypt. 

“ But I was doomed to slaughter by the sharp¬ 
ened sword when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

Sacrifice, meat-offering, and the anointing oil, 
were prepared when I came forth from Egypt; 

“ But the peculiar people were taken and led as 
sheep to the slaughter, when I went forth from Je¬ 
rusalem. 

‘‘ Sabbaths and festivals were instituted, signs 
and wonders performed, when I came forth from 
Egypt: .... 

“But fasting, mourning, and vexatious pursuit, 
when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

“ How goodly were the tents, and the four stand¬ 
ards, when I came forth from Egypt! 

“ But it was the tents o Ishmaelites, and the 
camps of the uncircumcised, when I went forth 
from Jerusalem. 

“ The jubilee and year of release for the land 
to"" rest were instituted when I came forth from 

Egypt) 


IS 


206 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


‘‘ But I was sold for ages, and cut off with seve¬ 
rity, when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

‘‘ The mercy-seat, ark, and the stones of me¬ 
morial, were prepared when I came forth from 
Egypt; 

‘‘ But sling-stones, and destructive weapons, 
when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

There were Levites, priests, and seventy el¬ 
ders, when I came forth from Egypt; 

But taskmasters, oppressers, sellers, and buy¬ 
ers, when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

“ Moses fed me, and Aaron led me, when I came 
forth from Egypt; 

But Nebuchadnezzar and the Emperor Ha¬ 
drian oppressed me when I went forth from Jeru¬ 
salem. 

“ When we prepared for battle the Lord was 
there, when 1 came forth from Egypt; 

“But He was removed far from us, and was not 
near us, when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

“ The secret place within the veil, and the order 
of shew-bread, when I came forth from Egypt; 

“ But wrath poured on me, covered me as a 
thicket, when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

“ Burnt-offerings, peace-offerings, and sacrifices 
by fire for a sweet savor, when I came forth from 

%ypt; 

“ But the precious children of Zion were thrust 
through with the sword, when I went forth from 
Jerusalem. 

“ Bonnets of honor were appointed to be worn 
for respect when I came forth from Egypt; 

“ But it was hissing, shouting, shame and vexa- 


MOURNFUL CONTRASTS. 


tion that I experienced when I went forth from 
Jerusalem. 

‘‘ The plate of gold, M'ith dominion and power, 
•were conferred on me, when I came forth from 

Egypt; 

“But there was none to help, and the crown 
■was down, when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

“ Sanctification, the spirit of prophecy, and the 
tremendous Divine presence, was I blessed with 
when I came forth from Egypt; 

“ But filthy and polluted with the unclean spirit 
was I, when I w^ent forth from Jerusalem. 

“ I had song, salvation, and the sounding trum¬ 
pets, when I came forth from Egypt; 

“ But the cries of the children, and the groans 
of the w'ounded, when I went forth from Jerusa¬ 
lem. 

“ The table, candlestick, whole burnt-offerings 
and incense, when I came forth from Egypt; 

“ But idols, abominations, and graven images, 
when I went forth from Jerusalem. 

“ Thanksgiving offerings, the testimony, and the 
order of Temple service, when I came forth from 
Egypt; 

“ But the want of the Talmud, and the discon¬ 
tinuance of the daily sacrifice, when I went forth 
from Jerusalem. 

“ The Lord God of Hosts showed us wonders, 
when I came forth from Egypt; 

“ And He will cause his Divine presence, and 
his service, to return to the midst of Jerusalem.” 

How dearly do the children of Israel cleave to the 
promise of future restoration ! It was uppermost 
in the thoughts of their brethren, who, forewarned 


208 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


of the desolations that should come on the city, and 
the Temple, and the land, still made it the subject 
of the very last inquiry that they were permitted to 
address to their Divine Master upon earth: “ Lord, 
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to 
Israel ?” The answer was in the spirit of the pro¬ 
phetic word, “ though it tarry, wait for itfor 
Jesus replied, It is not for you to know the times 
and the seasons which my Father hath put in his 
own power.” Yet in despite even of this testimo¬ 
ny, we often hear the Jew condemned as a carnal 
speculatist, because he confidently looks forward to 
the same event, not knowing the time or the sea¬ 
son, but perfectly certain that they are decreed and 
settled, and will arrive at the end of the appointed 
days. 

The desolation, the utter destruction of the Tem¬ 
ple, is a most striking incident indeed, when we 
look back to the time of Ezra, and glance along the 
term of its duration. Ezra says, “ And the elders 
of the people builded, and they prospered through 
the prophesying of Haggai the prophet, and Zech- 
ariah, the son of Iddo.” Haggai’s language is 
exceedingly beautiful, calculated above measure 
to stimulate and encourage his enterprising breth¬ 
ren : 

Go up to the mountain, and,bring wood, 

‘‘ And build the house ; and I will take pleasure 
in it. 

“ And I will be glorified, saith the Lord.” 

And again in the same magnificent strain, he pr©-' 
diets the result: 

‘‘ Who is left among you 

‘‘ That saw this house 


LANGUAGE OF HAGGAI. 


209 


In her first glory ? 

“ And how do ye see it now ? 

“ Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as 
nothing ? 

“ Yet now be strong, 0 Zerubbabel, saith the 
Lord ; 

‘‘ And be strong, O Joshua, the son of Josedech 
the high priest; 

And be strong, all ye people of the land, saith 
the Lord, and work : 

‘‘For I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts : 

“ According to the.word that I covenanted with 
jou 

“ When ye came out of Egypt, 

“ So my spirit remaineth with you ; 

“ Fear ye not. 

“ For thus saith the Lord of hosts ; 

“ Yet once, it is a little while, 

“ And I will shake the heavens, and the earth, 

“ And the sea, and the dry land; 

“ And I will shake all nations, 

“ And the desire of all nations shall come : 

“ And I will fill this house with glory, saith the 
Lord of hosts. 

“ The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, 

“ Saith the Lord of hosts ; 

“ The glory of this latter house shall be greater 
than of the former, 

<‘ Saith the Lord of hosts: 

“ And in this place will I give peace, 

“ Saith the Lord of hosts.” 

The heart trembles in reading such words, and 
faints to think that it was upon this same sacred 
house, which the Lord deigned so to encourage his 
18 * 


210 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


servants to build, the fire of desolation was kindled, 
and the abominable pollution of the grossest hea¬ 
then idolatry was perpetrated amidst its ruins ; and 
that now, after the ploughshare had torn up its 
foundations, a Moslem mosque occupies the hal¬ 
lowed site. Did, then, the word of the Lord fail ? 
We know that there was no visible manifestation of 
the Divine presence as in the former house, the 
chief glory of which was in the Shechinah, the bright 
cloud which rested on the mercy-seat, and at times 
had filled the whole building. Neither was there 
the ark of the covenant, nor the tables of the Law, 
nor Aaron’s budded rod, nor the pot of manna, the 
angels’ food with which he fed his people in the 
wilderness. How, then, was the glory of that 
house made to surpass the glory of the former ^ 
How did the Lord in an especial manner give peace, 
where war, the fiercest, bloodiest, and most dread¬ 
fully destructive war that ever raged among men, 
sent riv^ers of blood over the ruins of that goodly 
house ^ There is not, there cannot be any answer 
to this, save in repeating that One greater than the 
Temple, greater than Solomon who budded the 
first and most glorious Temple, was there. That 
the Desire of all nations, the Prince of peace, came 
with the offer of peace, and would have gathered 
Jerusalem’s children into a secure hiding-place from 
every enemy, even when the Roman had already 
established his iron rule upon her sacred hills. 
From the eighth day of his infancy, when Simon 
and Anna welcomed him, the glory of his people 
Israel,” unto that holy habitation, even to the eve 
of his cruel betrayal and more cruel death, that 
Temple was the loved resort of Israel’s acknow- 


MISCHIEVOUS ERRORS. 


211 


lodged Messiah; and by his presence it was glori¬ 
fied beyond all former glory, and in its courts he 
taught his doctrine, and bestowed the gift of peace. 
His Name is made hateful to the Jews through the 
abominable idolatries, the murders, tlie profana¬ 
tions of holy places and holy things, and the iniqui¬ 
tous persecutions that have been heaped upon 
themselves, under the false assumption of that name 
by evil men ; and the bringing in of equally evil 
systems under the same false pretence ; so that the 
plainest meaning of their own prophetic books is 
set aside rather than they will acknowledge that 
they point to what is presented before tl#eir eyes as 
Christianity. Do we condemn them for thus turn¬ 
ing away from a portion of the Divine revelation 1 
Let us also fear, lest many among ourselves be 
found involved in the same charge ; for, assuredly, 
there is nothing more clearly, more forcibly, more 
unequivocally set forth in scripture than is the 
eternal, immutable promise of the Most High to 
bring back the nation of Israel, to cause them, 
as such, again to inherit the places now long des¬ 
olate, and to fulfil to the letter, no less than 
in its spiritual significance, the covenant ratified to 
Abraham concerning the gift of the land of Canaan 
to his descendants for ever. Spiritualize as we 
may, in reference to the Old Testament prophe¬ 
cies, we cannot, as Christians, evade the force of 
the apostle’s exposition of them in the eleventh 
chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. On the 
Continent, the impression prevails that it is an in¬ 
tegral part of Christianity to hate and to persecute 
the Jew'; here, where all odious and cruel preju¬ 
dice against them is rapidly dying away, tliey find 


212 


JUD^A CAPTA. 


that the great test of religious zeal on their behalf 
appears to be the earnest desire to rob them of 
their nationality, and to blend them in an undistin¬ 
guished mass with the Gentiles around them ; 
while at the same time we press on them the sav¬ 
ing truth of their Messiah having once appeared as 
a victim, to put away sin by the offering of him¬ 
self, we dispute another and inseparable truth held 
firmly, in strong faith and enduring hope, by them, 
that the Messiah shall yet again come, in visible 
glory, as a King over all the earth, and more espe¬ 
cially as the King of Israel, to reign. The old 
divines amongst us were fond of the saying, “No 
cross, no crownour creed, as held up to the 
Jews, appears to consist in the assertion, “ A cross, 
but no crown.” 

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel! the number 
of those who remain under this impression is daily 
diminishing, and the clear, strong, piercing light 
of revelation is shining more and more through 
breaking clouds, soon to roll away, and leave its 
lustre unimpeded. There was, we freely admit, a 
need for the spreading of this veil over the nations ; 
for without it, how shcruld the scriptures have been 
fulfilled, that decreed to Judah a lot of universal 
sorrow, and shame, and obloquy ? How could the 
people of the Lord have become an “ astonish- 
1 ent, a proverb, and a by-word among all na¬ 
tions how could it have been that among the 
nations they should find no ease, neither the sole 
of their foot have had any rest; but a trembling of 
heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind, and 
non-assurance of life, from generation to genera¬ 
tion, had not the predicted delusion fallen upon the 


DAWNING MERCIES, 


213 


Gentile world to say, The two families which 
the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off ?” 
But for this, Christians in every age would have 
combined their efforts to bring about the work of ^ 
restoration before the set time was even approach¬ 
ing ; and the outcast of Israel, the dispersed of 
Judah, would have been regarded as exiled kings, 

whose diadem had been taken awav for a short 

«/ 

season, to be restored in tenfold splendor. The 
Lord hath overruled all things to the furtherance 
of his own sovereign purposes, hitherto of wrath ; 
now of returning mercy : and surely it ill becomes 
us when He would withdraw the covering from 
our eyes, to grasp it with perverse tenacity, and 
in act, if not in word, to declare that we will not 
see. 

We have looked upon Jerusalem as itw'as, when 
the Roman host advanced to encompass it round; and 
upon Jerusalem, as it also was when the work of 
desolation had been completed, and the destroying 
army withdrawn from its lonely ruins. Jerusalem 
as it is presents an object of the most surpassing, 
thrilling interest, through the astonishing change 
that in the course of a few years is observable, first 
in the minds and intents of those who visit the holy 
city, and secondly in the result of their investiga¬ 
tions. The Christian religion, in its purity, seems 
to have prevailed there just while the church of the 
circumcision, a small band of those who had escap¬ 
ed to Pella, found a refuge among the ruins of Zion, 
and clung to the mouldering stones of their beloved 
city and Temple. They were, however, disturbed 
in their desolate retreat by the Roman tyrants, who, 
fe^r^'iil lest one of David’s royal house might yet 


214 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


escape to claim the kingdom, invaded even this 
harmless band, and murdered their chief pastor. 
From the period of Hadrian’s Roman town, raised 
upon her holy hills, even to this day, has Jerusa¬ 
lem been a cage of unclean birds : never more so 
than when they who called themselves Christians 
held sway over her. Superstition, the most grov¬ 
elling that can be imagined, and the most fearfully 
opposed to the word of God, with one hand heaped 
defilement on the mountain of the Lord’s house, 
and with the other groped for miraculous crosses, 
found or feigned legends that enabled her to fix on 
this and that spot as distinguished by some event in 
gospel history, and reared an idol fane upon each 
fabulous site. The nobler Turk made choice of 
the mountain which God had delighted to hallow, 
and ignorant man to profane ; and there he built his 
mosque, and fenced again the ancient platform of 
Temple courts, and, divinely, though unconsciously 
instructed, he guards it to this day, alike from friend 
and foe. 

Now, instead of digging for impossible memen¬ 
toes of events that left no merely material trace 
behind them, to mar their deep spiritual significan- 
cy, our Christian tourists approach Jerusalem in¬ 
tent on the discovery of national antiquities, and to 
connect the present era with her past majesty and 
power. To this momentous revolution in the pub¬ 
lic mind we are indebted for the formation of a link 
that we hesitate not to sav was essentially neces- 
sary to a right view of the Lord’s work; for by it 
we are gradually establishing the identity of sites 
which, as they are set forth with the most perfect 
topographical exactitude in prophetic Scripture, we 


SACRED PROMISES. 


£15 


must necessarily keep in view, while looking for 
its fulfilment. Let any simple-minded believer in 
the inspired character of the sacred writings read 
the following declaration, with a full regard to its 
closing wmrds, and he cannot but enter into our 
meaning, nor, we should think, fail to arrive at the 
same conclusion. 

“ Thus saith the Lord, 

“ Which giveth the sun for light by day. 

And the ordinances of the moon and of the 
stars for a light by night. 

Which divideth the sea where the waves 
thereof roar ; 

“ The Lord of hosts is his name ! 

“ If those ordinances depart from before me, 
saith the Lord, 

“ Then the seed of Israel also shall cease 
From being a nation before me for ever. 

“ Thus saith the Lord ; 

If heaven above can be measured. 

And the foundations of the earth searched be¬ 
neath, 

“ I also will cast off all the seed of Israel, 

‘‘ For all that they have done, saith the Lord. 

“ Behold,-the days come, saith the Lord, 

“ That the city shall be built to the Lord, 

From the tower of Hannaneel unto the gate of 
the corner, 

‘‘ And the measuring line shall yet go forth 
Over against it upon the hill Gareb, 

And shall compass about to Goath, 

And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and 
of the ashes, 

“ And all the fields unto the brook of Kedron, 


216 


JUDiEA CAPTA. 


Unto the corner of the horse gate toward the 
east, 

“ Shall be holy unto the Lord ; 

It shall not be plucked up, 

Nor be thrown down any more for ever.”* 

The whole of this, and the preceding chapter of 
Jeremiah, if read consecutively, and without a 
break, bears upon the subject with a force, that 
if not irresistibly convincing, must be met with a 
power of repulsion that we should tremble to pos¬ 
sess. That the prediction is yet unfulfilled, one 
glance at the two concluding lines must prove ; and 
immediately preceding the above passage is the 
promise of a new covenant, in virtue of which the 
Law shall be written in the hearts of the house of 
Israel. It was of old addressed to their ears, with 
the covenant, “ Do this, and live but that law, 
so pure in its nature, and so strict in its require¬ 
ments, they could not fulfil: they failed in their 
part of the covenant, and so brake it. But better 
things are in reserve for Israel; the Lord will 
write that holy law not on tables of stone, but in 
their inward parts ; and they shall render the will¬ 
ing service of loving, obedient sons, where, as 
bondsmen, ruled by fear, they were -not able to 
bear the yoke of observances, into the deep spirit¬ 
ual tendency of which their hearts could not enter. 
The passage is so important, and has withal, by 
some undiscriminating believers, been so grievously 
perverted from its true meaning by a confounding 
of “ the law” with “ the covenant,” that we can¬ 
not do better than cite it here. 


* Jeremiah xxju. 35—40. 


WHAT SHALL BE 


217 


“ Behold the days come, saith the Lord, 

“ That I will make a new covenant 
‘‘ With the house of Israel, and with the house 
of Judah; 

“ Not according to the covenant that I made 
with their fathers, 

“ In the day that I took them by the hand 
‘‘To bring them forth out of the land of Egypt; 
“ Which my covenant they brake, 

“ Although I w^as no husband unto them, saith 
the Lord : 

“But this shall be the covenant 
“ That I will make with the house of Israel; 

“ After those days, saith the Lord, 

“ I will put my law into their inward parts, 

“ And write it in their hearts ; 

“ And I w ill be their God, 

“ And they shall be my people. 

“ And they shall teach no more 
" “ Every man his neighbor, and every man his 
brother, 

“ Saying, Know the Lord : 

“ For they all shall know me, 

“ From the least of them unto the greatest of 
them, saith the Lord : 

“ For I will forgive their iniquity, 

“ And I wdll remember their sin no more.”* 

And then, without a break, follows the gracious 
am’ lorious declaration before quoted. 



hat a solemn interest does all this attach to 


the recent discoveries of learned and godly men, 
who have made it their business and delight to ex- 


* Jeremiah xxxi. 31 
19 


218 


JUD^A CAPTA 


plore the ancient boundaries, and to set up again 
the long-forgotten landmarks of the holy city! 
The tower of Hippicus is now identified; and 
springing from a piece of ancient masonry, single 
stones of which reach to the enormous length of 
twenty-four feet, has been found the commence¬ 
ment of an arch, that evidently formed part of the 
bridge from the Temple to the city of David. Nay, 
the very mosque itself has been subjected to the 
eager gaze of enterprising Englishmen, and disco¬ 
veries made that justify the belief in the existence 
of foundations, over which, indeed, the plough has 
passed, though above, not one stone was left upon 
another. Who could prevail to dig up the subter¬ 
ranean relics of that stupendous architecture ? 
The press teems with discoveries, adding perpe¬ 
tually to the store of local information already pos¬ 
sessed ; and we cannot choose but look upon Jeru¬ 
salem not merely as the dwindled skeleton of what 
once was, but as the swelling germ, half rising 
from its earthy bed in promise of what is to be. 

Once more, from the Mount of Olives, we will 
in imagination look down, and contemplate the 
existing scene: and truly we may still apply the 
lamenting apostrophe, “ How does the city sit soli¬ 
tary, that was full of people !” for an immense 
track of ground lies before us, destitute of a single 
building, not even a hovel or a shed appearing, 
where stately streets and crowded marts once 
attested the populousness of the mighty Jerusa¬ 
lem. The present walls enclose a mere fraction 
of it: they pass over the brow of Zion, leaving to 
the plough and the browsing flock the greater pro¬ 
portion of the ground w^here David’s city stood 


JERUSALEM AS IT IS. 


219 


Ophel, the long, narrow descent, reaching from 
the Temple wall to the valley of Hinnom, bound¬ 
ed on the west by the Tyropean, and on the east 
by the valley of Kedron, and appropriated to the 
multitude who served the Temple, bears not a 
dwelling on its desolate slope : nor can the eye dis¬ 
tinguish the point whence rose the wall that girt it 
in. For a precipitous descent into the valley be¬ 
neath, we now behold the swelling mass of ground, 
the accumulation of many centuries, where no 
doubt lies hidden a deep substratum of giant ruins, 
blocking up the entrance to subterranean caves. 
The site of fort Antonia is occupied by the house 
of the Turkish governor, and a slender minaret 
marks the memorable area, forming, as in olden 
time, the north-west corner of the enclosure where 
stands the alien occupant of a spot that long was, 
and ere long again shall be, most holy unto the 
Lord. We look with something like toleration, if 
with complacency we cannot look, on IshmaePs 
strong grasp of Isaac’s sacred mountain ; for though 
he there worships a god whom his fathers knew not, 
he has purged the place of idols ; and we must 
needs rejoice that the impious mummeries enacted 
in other parts of the city, are sternly held aloof 
from contaminating the threshing-floor of Arau- 
nah. 

An irregular line of unequal fortification, exclud¬ 
ing the greater part of Bezetha, and other tracks 
that lay within the ancient city, runs straggling out 
and in, embracing the melancholy mass of broken 
buildings that loiter where the hands of different 
generations have placed them, bearing no resem¬ 
blance to what was, and probably destined to con- 


220 


JUDiEA CAPTA 


tribute but little portion to what is about to be. 
Until within a few short years, animal life was at a 
low ebb in Jerusalem j intellectual life at a lower, 
and spiritual life there was none ; this was Zion, 
whom no man sought after ; but now from every 
part of the world the Gentiles congregate, they 
scarcely know for what, in her gloomy streets ; and, 
like doves'to their windows,” her own exiled race 
flock unto her, their hopes rekindling under an in¬ 
fluence that never yet moved the seed of Jacob in 
vain. 

While Gentiles of all climes and creeds plan, 
each after the model that his own imagination ap¬ 
proves as best, the Lord God of Israel still keeps 
silence ; and they who know his name, feel that 
their vocation is to watch, to pray, to wait. The 
whole Bible is one manual of prayer for such as 
look for the appearing of Israel’s Messiah in power 
and great glory, to conquer and to reign. He went 
into a far country, far beyond the ken of mortal 
eye, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 
Long has he been gone, and long and sore have 
been the afflictions of those whom He alone can 
comfort. Zion has been desolate and a widow, her 
children moving to and fro, crushed under a dispen¬ 
sation of unequalled wrath. Those of every other 
kindred, and people, and nation, and tongue, to 
whom he hath graciously extended the covenant of 
peace, and admitted to a spiritual participation in 
the blood-bought blessings of his grace, have like¬ 
wise formed a small and scattered remnant, through 
much tribulation entering the kingdom of heaven. 
While he is absent, all the foundations of the earth 
are out of course, vanity is written on its posses- 


COMING MERCIES 


221 


sions, and pollution on its joys. We wait, we 
watch, we wrestle in strong supplication for the 
signs that shall herald his approach, telling us in 
language not to be misunderstood, that the Lord is 
at hand. 

Very imperfectly have we followed through the 
sad stages of its mournful fall, the city, concerning 
which the Lord once said that He had chosen it, 
yea, desired it for his habitation. We have seen 
how Judaea was laid waste, Jerusalem made a heap, 
and the children of the covenant slaughtered, or 
carried away into the cruellest captivity, the most 
wide and prolonged dispersion ever known among 
men. Shall we then say, in the language of un¬ 
believing doubt, “ Hath God forgotten to be gra¬ 
cious ? Hath he cast off for ever No, we 
know' that the fullness of the cup of troubling of 
which Jerusalem has drank the dregs, and wTung 
them out, is a sure earnest of the abundance of that 
cup of blessing reserved for her when the days of 
her mourning are ended. The city shall be budd¬ 
ed again, and the desolate w'astes inhabited, and 
the people shall feed and lie down, and none shall 
make them afraid. 

“ Sing, O daughter of Zion ; 

‘‘ Shout, O Israel : 

“ Be glad and rejoice wdth all the heart: 

“ O daughter of Jerusalem. 

‘‘ The Lord hath taken away thy judgment, 

“ He hath cast out thine enemy ; 

“ The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the 
midst of thee; 

‘‘ Thou shalt not see evil any more. 

19 * 


222 


JUDiEA CAPTA 


In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear 
thou not; 

“ And to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. 

“ The Lord thy God, in the midst of thee, is 
mighty; 

“ He will save. He will rejoice over thee with 


joy; 

“ He will rest in his love ; He will joy over thee 
with singing. 

I will gather them that are sorrowful for the 
solemn assembly, 

Who are of thee, 

To whom the reproach of it was a burden. 

‘‘ Behold, at that time, I will undo all that afflict 
thee : 

And I will save her that halteth, and gather 
her that was driven out. 

And I will get them praise and fiime 

“ In every land where they have been put to 
shame. 

‘‘ At that time will I bring you again. 

Even in the time that I gather you : 

‘‘ For I will make you a name and a praise 
Among all the people of the earth. 

When I turn back your captivity before your 
eyes. 


“ Saith the Lord.”* 
* Zeph. iii. 14. 


WASmNGTON AND HIS GENERALS. 

J. T. Headley, author of “Napoleon and his Marshals,” 

“ The Sacred Mountains,” &c. In tworolunies. 12nio. 
pp. 348. 

_ “We have read it with an unwonted degree of pleasure and admira¬ 
tion. Many people complain that American history lacks romance; that** 
it has in it nothing stirring or striking: and is, therefore, dull and spirit¬ 
less, beside the annals of Europe. Mr. Headley has given to this 
objection the most thorough and conclusive refutation it could possibly 
receive; and itiis not likely to be heard again. He has given to the 
incidents of our Revolution, by his graphic and spirited descriptions, an 
intensity of interest not surpassed in the grandest achievments of Na- 
noleon’s troops. Instead of giving simply the naked details of what was 
'.one, like most of those who have written upon the same subject, he 
nas breathed into them the breath of life;—he brings his reader into the 
immediate presence of the act he describes;—his words have a burning, 
rushing power; and you can no more doubt the reality of his pictures, 
than you could have doubted the reality of the original scenes, had you 
been in the midst of them.”— Courier and Inquirer. 

“Unlike all the histories of the American Revolution, which aim to 
give the causes and the results of the war, Mr. Headley presents the 
eventful part of that Revolution, and describes the scenes which trans¬ 
pired seventy years ago with such nervous precision and accurate detail, 
that the reader fancies himself on the spots where the principal battles 
occurred, and feels that he is living in “ the times that tried men’s souls.” 
No author ever possessed the power to present a battle, or any other 
scene, in the glowing life-like descriptions of Headley.”— Christian 
Secretary. 

“ We are much pleased with this book, and question whether any offer¬ 
ing could be more acceptable to the American reader. Washington sur¬ 
rounded by his heroic band of Generals, and all moving amid the great 
events of the American Revolution, is the grandest spectacle in history; 
and the masterly pen of Headley has succeeded to admiration in present¬ 
ing it in all its own intensity of interest.—“ Washington and his Gene¬ 
rals,” like “ Napoleon and his Marshals,” seems to us moi’e like a master 
piece of painting, than a mere work of letters, so matchless are the de¬ 
scriptions of the most exciting scenes, so perfect are the delineations of 
character.”— Daily Herald. 

“ There is no difficulty in understanding the secret of the great popu¬ 
larity which the writings of Mr. Headley have so rapidly obtained. He 
speaks heartily, earnestly, truthfully, and the warm heart answers to 
his voice. In his Washington he has exceeded himself, producing a 
noble portrait of the noblest man: and weaving such a garland as patri¬ 
otism and reverence love to place on the brow of the Father of his Coun¬ 
try.”-- W. Y. Observer. 

“ Every page has some graphic picture of the stiring scenes in which 
Washington and his Generals were actors. I'he characteristics of these 
valiant champions—their stern patriotism—their noble sacrifices, and 
their indomitable energy and courage—are portrayed with great beauty, 
and present the men and their times to the reader with more than pic¬ 
torial strength and clearness.”— Albany Evening Journal. 

“ Though we are necessarily familiar with much of the historical mat¬ 
ter comprised in Mr. Headley’s book, yet his admirable style of narra- 


tive, and vivid coloring of the more stirring scenes invest these memoirs 
with a peculiar interest, and give them a freshness that is very accepta¬ 
ble. Familiar as we were, with the battle of Bunker Hill, we yet 
derived a more vivid conception of it from Mr. Headley’s graphic pen, 
than we ever before realized, and this is only one among many occa¬ 
sions in the perusal of his work, where we felt the powerful, and we may 
say, resistless influence of his exciting elofiuence.”— The Courier. 

‘•'We might particularize instances which have thrilled us in the 
perusal; but they are scattered over the volumes. Mr. Headley has 
undertaken a difficult worX in the production of these sketches. It is a 
work only of an artist—a genius ; and to be accoipplished only by labo¬ 
rious, tedious investigation.”— The Ohio Observer. 

No writer has delineated the thrilling scenes and events of the Revo¬ 
lutionary struggle with such graphic power. He places one as it were 
upon the very theatre of action and bloody conflict; the surrounding 
incidents, under the influence of his magic pen, assuming the reality of 
visible objects, and impressing themselves upon the mind with the 
vividness of personal observation. This work fills a place in American 
Literature occupied by no other. It is sui generis. And we know of 
none so likely to beget in the youthful mind a keen and permanent relish 
for the history of his country, as this.”— Onondago Democrat. 

“These sketches, or whatever they may be called, are certainly sur¬ 
prising productions. We are all of ns more or less familiar with the 
heroes and the battles of the Revolution. History and the faltering 
tongues of the few decayed survivors of those trying times, have fought 
over and over our battles for liberty.—They have all been carefully, 
minutely and accurately described by the most veritable historians of 
the times. Those thrilling scenes in which our fathers suffered and 
died, that we might live, have been painted in all their lights and shades; 
but they wanted a master’s hand to finish them. Headley has brought 
down ftre from heaven, aud.given life to the whole. We had all the fea¬ 
tures before, but comparatively lifeles.s. Headley has given them ani¬ 
mation and soul, and the work now under consideration is equal in point 
of interest to any other relating to the great moral, civil and political 
Revolution of 1776.”— Saratoga Republican. 

“We welcome Mr. Headly to American ground, and to a work for 
which he of' all our writers is best fitted—the presentation of the im¬ 
mortal achievements of our revolution—as they present themselves to 
the popular heart, and not to the dry historian in his search for details. 
The various published lives of the generals of ’76, though carefully 
written and filled with interesting facts, have, we venture to say, im¬ 
pressed themselves but little on the national mind, and been compara¬ 
tively little read—this because the writer did not become fired with the 
heat of the times they wrote of, and thus by their imagination reproduce 
the feeling and recall the tone of the great struggle for freedom and 
independence. Yet it is morally important that such a work should be 
written—because thereby the spirit of the great founders of our nation 
may be made part of our spirit, and pass into our national life and cha¬ 
racter. Mr. Headley has, we think, done this most successfully, and 
we have read his sketches—as he modestly terms them in his preface, 
with strong interest and satisfaction. We should, however, come short 
of doing him justice, if we should not refer to a difficulty he has had to 
contend with, and which he mentions—the barrenness of personal inci¬ 
dents in the accounts of the battles—owing probably to the want of a 
newspaper press in those times, and also to the dignity of manner and 
language that then prevailed which did not encourage a familiar know¬ 
ledge of public characters.”—Ci>t. Inquirer. 




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